Premier League 2018-19: Three potential replacements for Jose Mourinho should he be sacked by Manchester United

#2 Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte began his Premier League career with a dominant, bullish title charge and succeeded

In the 15 years that Roman Abramovic has owned Chelsea for, he has overseen 12 different managers take charge at Stamford Bridge with varied levels of success.

Antonio Conte began his Premier League career with a dominant, bullish title charge and succeeded, winning 31 out of a possible 38 fixtures in the process, and guided Chelsea to the FA Cup final.

It is quite the commendable achievement considering that they had a rocky start with heavy 3-0 losses to Arsenal and Liverpool and that Conte had never managed in the English top flight before.

Chelsea, under the former Juventus boss, were a force to be reckoned with both offensively and defensively, with his three-at-the-back system being undoubtedly the most effective rendition of the system in the country.

Every manager from Pep Guardiola to Jose Mourinho to Arsene Wenger had at some point of the season attempted to set their team up with three centre-halves at the back but Conte’s Chelsea had become pioneers of the system practically overnight.

Eventually, a poor performance by the London club in the transfer market came back to haunt them and the Italian, with a fifth-placed finish and an FA Cup final in his second season before parting ways. The squad wasn’t improved to deal with the added pressure of Europe – with the only major changes being Alvaro Morata replacing Diego Costa and Timoeue Bakayoko replacing Nemanja Matic.

If United truly harbour ambitions to win the league, Conte would present a very stable option for Woodward. His resurrection job at Juventus to take them from an ageing and declining side to three Scudettos in three years is nothing short of phenomenal.

Added to that, his work at Chelsea – for all the criticism he drew for being too defensive in his approach – is beyond respectable. His relation with Pogba from their Juventus days is an added bonus.

Conte’s most pressing issue with his last two jobs at club level (Chelsea and Juventus) was the fact that he wasn’t given the financial support that he demanded.

United have also shown similar hesitance in the transfer market this summer due to concerns over Mourinho’s long-term plans.

Should Conte be appointed with the long-term future in mind, though, backing in the transfer window should be quite realistically achievable.

Conte would be a fantastic appointment as far as the Premier League is concerned.