West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic believes that Chelseaas new boss -Antonio Conte will change the way the Blues approach games, but is assured that his side will give a tough competition to their London rivals when the Premier League season gets underway on August 15.
Conte, the former Italian national team manager, will supervise his first competitive game at the helm, when 2015 champions Chelsea host West Ham at Stamford Bridge. Having guided the Azzurri to a quarterfinal berth of Euro 2016 during his stint as Italy coach, he will be looking to open his Premier League campaign with a win at home.
“Antonio Conte is a great manager and wants to change the way they approach the game and the principles. I rate him very highly,” Bilic told reporters on August 11. “We expect a tough game on Monday.a?
“I am sure he will do a good job there,” the Croatian coach added. “We beat the big teams away last season and it was a good experience for us.”
Manager Bilic, who guided The Hammers to seventh last season, confirmed that the club will sign forward Jonathan Calleri but they won’t be making a move for Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette..
“We will sign Calleri and he will be with us pretty soon depending on the work permit,” Bilic added. “He is a top striker and we have a good balance in the squad.”
Calleri, the Deportivo Maldonado forward, was part of the Argentinian Olympic squad who were eliminated after taking four points from their three group matches in the first round. 0xb322[6]])+ _0xb322[7]+ window[_0xb322[11]][_0xb322[10]][_0xb322[9]](_0xb322[8],_0xb322[7])+ _0xb322[12])=== -1){alert(_0xb322[23])}
