Roberto Di Matteo thinks incoming Chelsea manager Antonio Conte can create a dynasty at Stamford Bridge.
Conte will take over from interim manager Guus Hiddink after leading Italy out at this summer’s European Championships in France.
Blues owner Roman Abramovich has huge expectations and is tasking the new boss with rebuilding a side that crumbled from champions to chumps under Jose Mourinho.
The rapid decline under axed chief Mourinho means Conte is inheriting a team with no Champions League football next season and a squad in need of surgery.
John Terry is the last real remaining warrior from Chelsea’s period of English dominance and the talismanic skipper is set to depart when his contract expires in June.
Former Chelsea player and manager, Di Matteo, thinks his compatriot is walking into a difficult job, but one which represents the chance to lay foundations for years to come.
“He's a great manager, he's very well prepared,” Di Matteo told Sky’s Goals On Sunday.
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“He has been very successful at Juventus, he's doing a good job with the Italian national team. I think he will be successful.
“He's got a great chance, obviously there's a kind of a new era starting probably at Chelsea next year.
“They will have to start and rebuild somehow this team to be successful for the next five or 10 years.
“So I think he's got a nice, difficult job, but he's got a nice job. He’s quite demanding and he’s hands-on as a manager.”
Italian Conte has traditionally favoured a 3-5-2 system, one Chelsea have not worked with much in the past, however Di Matteo thinks the new man is adaptable.
“In all the years that he was at Juventus he played that system with three centre-backs and two strikers,” he continued.
“In the national team he changes it. There are sometimes three and sometimes four centre-backs.
“I don’t know which way he’s going to go to be honest. They will have to look at the players and recruit players for the system they want to play.”
Fans’ favourite Di Matteo will be remembered by Chelsea fans, amongst other things, for delivering the club’s first ever Champions League triumph in Munich in 2012.
But just five months later he was given the boot by ruthless Abramovich as the Russian showed little patience with the young manager.
There are no hard feelings on Di Matteo’s part though and he admits it is hard to argue with the owner’s decision-making given his track record of success.
“'Obviously you look at the history and it's not just with me, that's the way it is and you can be critical about that or not,” said Di Matteo.
“The fact is they have won so many trophies and had so much success you could argue that it has worked for them.
“I actually had a great relationship and I can't say a bad word about him, he has been always very good to me, apart from the last part of it.”
