It wasn’t easy at the height of the Scommessopoli match-fixing scandal to keep track of the number of people who were arrested, how many training grounds were raided and the damage it caused to Italy’s football reputation, but it certainly puts into perspective anything Sir Alex Ferguson has ever said about checking under the sauce of his pasta. There has never been an inquiry to implicate so many clubs and if you have ever seen Mock the Week you might recall one of the panellists, Hugh Dennis, giving his take on events. “And for those who missed them earlier,” he began, “here are next week’s Italian football results.”

In total, 37 clubs were punished, along with dozens of players and officials. Italian football was up to its eyes in so much scandal the president, Mario Monti, threatened to close it down for three years. Serie A was on its knees and, for all Italy’s charms, it was another bleak reminder that football could not be trusted in the country that previously gave us the Totonero and Calciopoli affairs.

It isn’t entirely straightforward, therefore, to feel completely at ease about the identity of the man Roman Abramovich has nominated to unlock the secrets of returning Chelsea to the summit of English football next season, in the face of potential competition from José Mourinho as well as Pep Guardiola at the two Manchester clubs.

Antonio Conte certainly ticks the boxes if we consider his outstanding achievements at Juventus, the club he served with distinction as a player, and the fact that since taking the Italy job he has lost only one match in 18 months. He has the force of personality to build on the restoration work that Guus Hiddink has impressively set about at Stamford Bridge and, if you want hard evidence about his ability to rejuvenate a stagnating team, just consider Conte’s way of introducing himself to the Juventus players in 2011.

“He needed only one speech, with many simple words, to conquer both me and Juventus,” Andrea Pirlo would later say. “He had fire running through his veins and he moved like a viper. ‘This squad, dear boys, is coming off two consecutive seventh-place finishes. It’s crazy. It’s shocking. I am not here for this, so it’s time to stop being so crap.’”

Juventus won Serie A without losing a single game in Conte’s first season and had made it three successive scudetti before he resigned in 2014. “When Conte speaks, his words assault you,” Pirlo said. “They crash through the doors of your mind. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said: ‘Hell, Conte said something really spot-on again today.’”

At the same time, it cannot simply be airbrushed from his record that he has a court case hanging over him for possible sports fraud, or that it is only three and a half years since Conte was banned for 10 months, later reduced to four, by the football authorities in a country then ranked 72nd in Transparency International’s corruption index – one of the lowest positions in Europe and behind, among others, Cuba and Brazil.

For those of you not entirely familiar with the story, it goes back to Conte’s time in charge of Siena when he was named by one of his players, Filippo Carobbio, as being aware of an alleged plan to fix a Serie B game against Novara, in April 2011, because the club president, Massimo Mezzaroma, had placed a large bet on the result.

Traditionally, the end-of-season fixtures in Italy are the most vulnerable to corruption and, according to Carobbio, Conte was present when a message from Mezzaroma was indirectly passed to the players during the riunione tecnica, the pre-match meeting when the manager and his squad discuss tactics. “There was an agreement for the match to end in a draw,” Carobbio stated in his evidence to the federal prosecutor. “It was discussed during the technical meeting so we were all aware of the agreed result, mainly so we could act accordingly during the match. The trainer himself, Antonio Conte, told us not to worry because we had an agreement about the draw.” The match finished 2-2.

Siena were going for the title, in second place behind Atalanta, and had already been promoted when they subsequently lost 1-0 to AlbinoLeffe. That, according to Carobbio, was arranged in advance when the assistant manager, Cristian Stellini, summoned him and another player, Claudio Terzi, after the teams played in January and asked them “to contact someone at AlbinoLeffe to reach an agreement over the return match”. Stellini was subsequently banned for two years, later extended by another six months, for his role in affecting results while playing for Bari in 2009-10.

“The idea was to make sure the points went to whichever side needed them more,” Carobbio said. “We agreed to give the points to AlbinoLeffe, who needed them to be mathematically sure of getting into the relegation play-off, but we asked them to keep the result to a one-goal difference.” In the previous week, there was “a lot of talk about the deal with AlbinoLeffe among the players, the manager and the club. Some wanted to go for a win in the hope of finishing first and securing the first-place bonus, provided Atalanta didn’t win, but in the end all of us – players and manager – agreed to let AlbinoLeffe have the points. As everyone in football knows, most of the final league matches are rigged.”

Conte has repeatedly and vigorously denied any wrongdoing and his lawyers have always pointed out the only evidence against him came in the form of a pentito, when someone admits culpability but names others to reduce the punishment. None of the other Siena players backed Carobbio’s allegations, yet nobody else was charged with Conte for failing to report alleged match-fixing. Nothing incriminating was found when the police ransacked Conte’s house and in one emotive press conference he described it as a “terrible injustice” and a “scandalous accusation”.

Nonetheless, Conte did try to strike a plea-bargaining agreement that would have meant him being banned for three months and fined ¤200,000, on condition it was not considered an admission of guilt. It was rejected and the Italian football federation (FIGC) decided Carobbio was a credible witness in a legal system which does not apply the rule of innocent until proven guilty. Appeals were heard and Conte was eventually cleared in relation to the Novara game but not the one against AlbinoLeffe, largely because the court deemed he “couldn’t have not known” about the plotting of Stellini, his right-hand man.

Since then, it is probably a reflection of the different cultures that within 20 months of him serving his ban – Conte missed 15 matches in Serie A and six in the Champions League – the FIGC appointed him to take charge of Italy’s national team. Just imagine the furore, for example, if the Football Association hired an England manager it had banned as part of a match-fixing investigation a couple of seasons earlier. Yet this is Italy, where different rules apply, and in fairness to Conte he might also argue, legitimately, that if the case were in England he would not have been found guilty in the first place.

In Chelsea’s position, however, they must feel slightly uneasy that a new book, written by the Sky Italia journalist Dario Nicolini, has made other claims, and that a court case opened in Cremona on 18 February, following on from Conte being among 130 people to be formally notified they are under investigation, in his case for a possible offence of fraud regarding the AlbinoLeffe game.

Conte did not have to attend and his lawyers are pressing for the case to be fast-tracked. Even so, there is every chance his appointment at Stamford Bridge might be confirmed before the case is heard, probably in the run-up to Euro 2016. It is not ideal, to say the least, and a calculated gamble on Chelsea’s part, wanting a quieter season than the one they are currently enduring.

Wenger’s weaker case for defence

That was some calling card Lionel Messi left under the floodlights of the Emirates Stadium but Arsène Wenger, usually such a fierce protector of his own, was not being unduly harsh when he described his Arsenal team as “naive” and “extremely guilty” for leaving themselves vulnerable to a side who make counterattacking their speciality.

Unfortunately for Wenger, this is now a recurring theme and, though Barcelona can inflict serious damage on the most accomplished opponents, there comes a point when it has to be asked whether there is a fundamental flaw in Arsenal’s defensive structure for these occasions. Wenger’s team have been eliminated from the first knockout stage of the Champions League every season since 2010-11 and in the six first-leg assignments they have now sieved 15 goals.

Their shortcomings might not seem so important if Arsenal can catch and overhaul Leicester City at the top of the Premier League, but their fixture schedule is problematic and the crowd at the Emirates can be so restless it is easy sometimes to fear for their manager.

If Wenger cannot win the title in a season when Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United have significantly regressed, it has to be asked, with Pep Guardiola, José Mourinho and Antonio Conte all potentially lining up in England’s top division next season, not to mention Mauricio Pochettino and Jürgen Klopp, whether the Arsenal manager will ever be reunited with that trophy.

Mancini’s hairdryer mistreatment

The tell-tale signs of Roberto Mancini allowing the power to go to his head started screaming out at Manchester City when it became apparent he had a different idea of the hairdryer treatment to the manager working just across the road. On cold days Mancini would signal for one of his entourage, a genial Italian by the name of Jose, to go into the dressing room a few minutes before training had finished. Jose would take a hairdryer and warm up Mancini’s jumper so it was just the right temperature when the manager came in.

Mancini certainly had some unusual demands if you consider that he turned a disabled toilet into his own personal bidet and made the devoted Jose drive 20 yards behind him on the days when he decided to cycle home from the training ground. Mancini liked the fresh air of the countryside, but if he became tired he would simply hop off and get a lift with Jose.

They were strange days and after the initial charm Mancini gave the impression of being permanently dissatisfied. It was a quick dalliance with Galatasaray and the high-maintenance streak has also been evident at Internazionale, where he has been banished to the stands, accused one interviewer of asking “bullshit” (then sent her flowers to apologise) and shown he still has the ability to belittle his best players. His captain, Mauro Icardi, was last season’s joint top scorer in Serie A and Inter’s outstanding performer. “I’m 50 and I would have scored that,” Mancini scoffed after Icardi missed one chance.

For all that, Mancini is still remembered with great fondness by most City supporters and it is strange his name never seems to crop up for potential jobs when it is only four years since he won the league. Mancini can regularly be heard comparing Serie A unfavourably to English football and, I’m reliably informed, is keen to come back.