Tiemoué Bakayoko recovering faster than expected as Chelsea return from pre-season tour — report

Tiemoué Bakayoko’s transfer to Chelsea was shrouded in plenty of mystery and assorted frustrations, including the fact that he arrived not quite ready to start training thanks to post-season corrective surgery on a nagging knee issue. While Bakayoko is expected to make a full recovery and the injury itself should not be a problem, having already missed three weeks of Conte’s intense pre-season training work is certainly not ideal for a player who’s expected to play a key role at Chelsea this season.

Fortunately, there is some good news regarding his recovery.

That’s Goal’s Julien Quelen reporting that Bakayoko’s rehab is going better than expected and he could even be available for next weekend’s Community Shield contest against Arsenal. He had not been expected to return until the end of August, if nto later.

Whether Bakayoko would be ready to play immediately is an entirely different matter of course.

“For me, it's very important to have the players work with me and understand my idea of football. For example, Bakayoko. He doesn't know anything about my idea of football. For sure he needs a bit of time to adapt and to understand.”

“This is the great difficulty for a coach who has an idea of football and wants to give an identity. When you take (buy) a player you need a bit of time to bring the player into your idea. It is the same now for (other summer buys) Alvaro Morata and Antonio Rudiger. For sure if the player arrives as soon as possible, it's easier for me.”

-Antonio Conte; source: Evening Standard

With the boys back in town and ready to resume training at Cobham on Monday, hopefully Bakayoko can begin his integration as well. Matić is on his way out now for sure, so the youngster will need to get up to speed quickly.