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Who would want to follow Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho into the Chelsea managerial meat grinder?

Man Utd via Getty Images
Man Utd via Getty Images

The last two title-winning Chelsea managers met at Wembley on Saturday, like ghosts from the graveyard of Stamford Bridge. No wonder the FA Cup Final was grim.

Chelsea, fittingly, won. Bringing a trophy to SW6 will always be uplifting in its own way but where was the flair, the elan, the excitement?

It was not a performance that left anyone wishing the new season was starting next week. Perhaps the only person looking forward to the next campaign is Antonio Conte, because he is likely to be a long way from west London come August.

Manchester United supporters will feel even worse. They have no silverware to paper over the cracks. Jose Mourinho, three years on from bringing the Premier League trophy to the Bridge, looks as if the game has worn him down.

The Portuguese appears jaded and his team seemed lethargic. How on earth does either of these clubs expect to challenge Manchester City next season?

Conte is a shell of the manager whose creativity and energy took Chelsea to an unexpected title little more than a year ago.

That success could have been a platform to kick on and bolster the squad. Not only should the Italian have been given the support to conduct a real defence of the Premier League crown, he should have been planning a serious tilt at the Champions League.

The 48-year-old deserves a substantial proportion of blame for the team’s sub-par campaign but the presence of Mourinho at Wembley pointed to institutional problems at Stamford Bridge.

If and when Conte leaves, he will be the third title-winning Chelsea manager this decade to last a single season or less after his triumph. Here’s the list: Conte, Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti. They are no mugs. They are three of the best managers in the world. You have to wonder whether Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp would last much longer in similar circumstances.

A popular view is that Mourinho’s three years at Real Madrid were the watershed period in his career. The Bernabeu wears managers down. The 55-year-old does not look back on his time in the Spanish capital with much affection but if Real served up some body blows, the subsequent two-and-a-half seasons at the Bridge ground down Mourinho even further.

It is understandable that clubs sometimes employ the wrong man. It happens. Yet Chelsea have a record of chewing up and spitting out some of the finest managers in the business. Who would want to follow Conte? Massimiliano Allegri and Maurizio Sarri might deem it safer to stay in Italy than risk becoming the next candidate for the managerial meat grinder. Luis Enrique has asked for eyewatering wages to make taking the job worthwhile.

Chelsea were better than United on Saturday — barely — but it was still a display that owed more to discipline than adventure.

Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and N’Golo Kante aside, there is not even the skeleton of a team that could match City. How do Chelsea attract more players of this calibre?

The next manager will be embarking on a rebuilding programme. Meanwhile, Guardiola and Klopp will be another year into their development.

Rebuilsing programme: The next manager will inherit few high-calibre players like Courtois (AFP/Getty Images)
Rebuilsing programme: The next manager will inherit few high-calibre players like Courtois (AFP/Getty Images)

Both men have had their judgment backed by their clubs, in contrast to managers at Chelsea.

Mourinho will spend a huge amount this summer but it is hard to see his methods working in this environment. City have thrived by playing at pace. Liverpool have reached the Champions League Final in Kiev on Saturday by throwing off the shackles and letting the speedsters loose.

United use tactics that slow things down. There is massive potential at Old Trafford still, but Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba were all misused over recent months.

Somewhere between Madrid and Manchester, Mourinho lost his way badly. That road ran through west London.

The Cup final was not the worst in Wembley’s history but the talent on the pitch — and in the dugouts — should have added up to a much more edifying spectacle. Made in Chelsea? That phrase has more than a ring of truth.