Adeboye Amosu
Victor Moses has revealed how Antonio Conte
transformed him into a wing-back and turned
Chelsea into champions.
Blues boss Conte is now just one win away from
clinching the Premier League title and is also on
course to win the Double in his first season in
English football.
The Italian has made playing three at the back
trendy again, and Moses has been the biggest
beneficiary of the new system he’s implemented
with the West Londoners.
Former Crystal Palace and Wigan winger Moses
was a forgotten man under previous Chelsea boss
Jose Mourinho, but has been reborn as wing-back
this season in one of the most unlikely success
stories of the season.
The 26-year-old, who got farmed out on season-
long loans to Liverpool, Stoke and West Ham
during Mourinho’s second spell at the club from
2013-15, is now on the verge of winning the title,
little under a year after thinking his Chelsea career
was over.
Moses, whose only appearance under the Special
One came in the Community Shield, said: “I have
always believed in the ability that I have got. I
have always known that I’ve got the ability to play
in a big club like Chelsea. “I have proved that.
“We have got a manager here that is willing to
give everybody an opportunity, and he gave me
that and I didn’t look back. I’m enjoying my
football at the moment and I just to keep on
enjoying it until the end of the season.
“He didn’t say to me. Do you fancy playing wing-
back?’ He just put me in there. He put me there
and after that he just kept on encouraging me and
went through it with me, what the position was all
about, mostly in training.
“And constantly he was talking to me in training
to make sure I was improving in it, talking me
through it. I took that in, and I didn’t look back.
“To be honest, it was a new position, but it was a
new manager giving me the opportunity to express
myself. I am willing to do that, and at the moment
I am enjoying it.
“I know that I have never played that position
before, but I am enjoying it and I just want to
keep on working, working hard every game every
week, to make sure I am improving in it. The
more games I play, the better I get.
“To be honest, I just wanted to play football. It
does not matter what position. I am willing to
play. To help the team as long as I am out there.
“It was at Hull [in early October [after the Blues’
back-to-back defeats by Liverpool and Arsenal],
that was where it all started.
“I really enjoyed it, and I took everything in. I kept
watching the video of myself in the Hull game to
make sure I was in the right place, and after that I
took it in and kept on improving.”
Although Moses has been outstanding for Chelsea
this season, he knows his place could be under
threat as Conte prepares to strengthen his squad
for next season’s return of Champions League
football.
But rather like the Blues’ run-in, he is not allowing
that to affect his focus ahead of Friday’s trip to
West Brom, where they can clinch the title with a
win.
Moses added: “Yes, we are almost there. We are
looking forward to the game on Friday but it won’t
be easy. It’s not done yet. But we believe in
ourselves, the players that we have got, the quality
that we have got individually.
“I know everyone is saying that we are going to
win the league, but we believe in ourselves and we
just want to keep on working hard to make sure
we wrap it up on Friday.”
