London: Swansea City assistant coach Claude Makelele retains fond memories of his successful spell as a Chelsea player but the Frenchman will temporarily sever ties with the London side when his current team face the Premier League leaders on Saturday.
The former Chelsea and France midfielder Makelele spent five years at Stamford Bridge, winning two Premier League titles along with two FA Cups and a League Cup success among his 217 appearances.
“Chelsea gave me a lot in my career. Now I go there not as an enemy, but as an opponent who works for a different club. The fans of Chelsea understand I am on a different side now,” Makelele told the Welsh club’s website (www.swanseacity.net).
“But I can’t and won’t forget my time there. I see two clubs — Real Madrid and Chelsea — as my home. I am happy to go ‘home’ on Saturday. But my focus now is with Swansea, and hopefully we will get a good result there.” Swansea have won four of their last six league games, a run of form which has propelled the club from the depths of the Premier League up to 15th, four points ahead of the bottom three with 13 games remaining.
“It will be a difficult game. To win at that stadium is very difficult — it’s one of the most difficult places to win in the Premier League,” Makelele added.
“Forget about the table — that’s the first thing (manager) Paul (Clement) will tell them.”
Clement wants to keep the former Chelsea midfielder at Swansea beyond the end of the season.
“If we keep moving in the direction we’re going there would be no reason to change anything,” he said.
“He (Makelele) does not have so much coaching experience, but he has a good feel for players, one-to-one, he has great knowledge of the game having played at such a high level.”
Swansea will be without Ki Sung-yueng (knee), Nathan Dyer (Achilles) and Jefferson Montero (hamstring) but Clement insisted his players should travel with confidence.
“When we went to Liverpool and Manchester City, I don’t think people expected much of us,” he said.
“But we won one of those games and were unlucky not to get a positive result in the other, and I think both those teams would say we gave them hard games.
“I think that in this moment, we will give anyone a difficult game.”
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte will hope to take inspiration from England rugby union coach Eddie Jones.
Conte demonstrated his desire to improve his team’s performance when he shared ideas with Jones, who has a perfect record of 15 wins from 15 games since taking charge of England, with his latest success a 21-16 defeat of Wales.
“Eddie is a winner and he is transferring that mentality on to the team,” Conte said ahead of facing Chelsea’s own Welsh opponents.
“It is important for me to compare my work and experience with another sport to gain inspiration and tactical ideas for the future,” the Italian added.
