Conte tasked with taking Chelsea back into the Champions League - Without drastic changes!

Antonio Conte has been told of Chelsea's expectations this coming season - to get back into the Champions League whilst maintaining a "relevant" challenge for the title. However, he has also been told that drastic changes are not necessary.

With the previous success of the last decade or so and our performances in the Champions League, it was always going to be the task set for the new man coming in after a disastrous season last term. Chelsea quite simply cannot afford to spend more than a single season out of the competition but as we all know, the season ahead with the likes of Guardiola, Mourinho, Klopp, Ranieri, Wenger and Pochettino managing our direct rivals for those four places, find out more here, it will be the toughest ever in the Premier League.

So what of Chelsea's challenge and the fact that there is a general consensus of opinion with the Chelsea hierarchy that drastic changes are not needed? Are they right? Was last season just a blip? Will we ever see that many players suffer a drastic dip in form ALL at the same time ever again?

For me, with any season, there must be at least three new signings to keep things fresh and most importantly of all, competition for places. The bulk of our first team and squad should be enough to establish a solid base to build from but there are definitely certain areas that we MUST strengthen befoe pre-season starts.

It's clear we need a left back and another right back if Conte decides to stick with Baba Rahman and Cesar Azpilicueta which I hope he does. If he decides to stick with his trusted formation with three centre backs and two wing backs then Azpilicueta will be more than capable of getting up and down the right side and hopefully the same will be said of Rahman. Without the obvious defensive ask being made and having three centre backs behind him, he can show what he can do moving forward. As I say, we need two more in those positions to provide competition for places.

Up top with Remy about to be sold, Falcao and Pato to return to their clubs and Diego Costa as our only recognised striker, it's clear that we need at least one more to come in whether that is Romelu Lukaku, Christian Benteke or Alvaro Morata. Bertrand Traore has made a real case for his inclusion this season after some good performances.

I guess we also need to understand the position of Diego Costa now. Does he want to stay or go? The reason we wonder is because of the mixed messages we receive from different sources in the press. I sincerely hope he stays.

The final area I believe we need to look at is the defensive/holding midfield position because it seems that Nemanja Matic wants to do the off and link up with Jose Mourinho again. No matter how much you tell a player he is wanted, if he wants to leave there is nothing you can do about that. As we all know Chelsea have been linked with the likes of Paul Pogba and Radja Nainggolan this summer but as yet nothing of note has been spoken of with a sign of any concrete interest from Chelsea.

We sit and wait for something to happen. Only in the days shortly after Antonio Conte has managed his last game for Italy will things start and the rumour mill will move into overdrive.

Cesc Fabrgeas and Cesar Azpilicueta face Italy in the round of sixteen in Euro 2016. I just wonder if that will be alot sooner than we thought!

What do you think of the task given to Conte and the fact that the club believe that wholesale changes do not need to be made?