Two Chelsea stars open up to the Chelsea nightmare of last season. Are they veiled digs at Jose Mourinho?

None of us want to look back and think about last season, that we can all agree on but I felt that I need to write a post about some interviews given by Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard who both have opened up to what happened last season which makes pretty interesting reading.

It's a situation that happened that no-one has a single answer or reason as to what went wrong! There, I've said it as I had been for the past twelve months it seems. We all want to be focused on the new Manager, our great start to the season and to build on what looks to be somewhat different to watching the dross we had to put up with as Premier League holders.

In a way this post will also focus on the positives both players have said about Antonio Conte and the difference between this and last season, however we cannot deny that what has been said about last year is intriguing and has opened the door to speculation that is likely to surface again when we have to face the Special One and Manchester United.

So to Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard, both away with their National teams and yet again the famous interviews that can be mis-interpreted which leads to allsorts of quotes and subsequent denials being issued afterwards. On this occasion, there is nothing to miss-interpret, nothing to be confused about but simple straight talking.

When asked of last season Cahill said:

"We needed organisation. Everyone saw what happened. We went from winning the league having stayed at the top all year to the disaster of last season. We lost our way tactically; everyone's head was in different directions.

When I say about pulling together as a team, I felt everyone had different situations going on individually whether that be if you're playing or not, the manager, or this or that. Different distractions are never healthy.

It is the hardest thing. People talk about as if you wake up one day and suddenly you're a bog standard player. It doesn't happen."

Eden Hazard said:

 “Conte puts trust in his players and now we are good after an ugly season last year. 

I’ve always been the same player but Conte knows how to treat players having played at the highest level himself.”

It's interesting to read Cahill admit that players fell out with the Manager and then change tact to speak of something else. As for Hazard, how much more of a dig can you aim at Mourinho than to state about Conte playing at this level himself!

So to this season and Gary Cahill in particular spoke of Conte in glowing terms by saying:

"The main thing for me is how fit and sharp we look, and the organisation in terms of where players need to be.

It was important that we regroup and get everyone focussed back to where we should be.

We needed to have a game-plan, have the tactics and way we want to play drilled into everyone and everybody buy into it. That's what we have seen early on.

This season we have come in, worked very hard and we are buying into what is happening here. That's the most important thing to move forward."

As I said this will be last post I feature on here that takes us back to a year ago and the nightmare that was last season. I posted because of what they have both said about Mourinho and about Conte and it's clear in my view that Antonio Conte has done exactly what was asked of him. He has re-united the squad, got all the players on-side to buy into his training methods and his tactics so what more can we ask for right now.

Onwards and upwards and how nice is it to read positive remarks for the new Manager compared to the rubbish we had to put with last season.