By James Horncastle

Mattia Destro’s first night of marital bliss ended with a 5am wake up call. He kissed his bride goodbye and left for Florence. Italy training awaited. “If it were down to me,” Antonio Conte smiled, “he would have already been on his way back after cutting the cake.”

The Italy manager would cancel Christmas too if the rules allowed him to as his former Siena players will tell you. Second in Serie B at the time, they had lost to Varese in their last game before the winter break in 2010.

When they returned to work on Boxing Day, they were in for a shock. Pack your things, they were told. A punitive training camp had been organised 400 miles away in Sicily. What remained of the festive period was spent doing the dreaded bleep test.

If Leicester’s players were wary of cuddly Claudio Ranieri and the reputation of Italian coaches for drilling their teams hard, Chelsea’s better brace themselves because, in retrospect, these last few months with Guus Hiddink will probably come to be seen as a walk in the park.