Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola has welcomed the appointment of new manager Antonio Conte.

The reigning Premier League champions announced on Monday that Conte will take over from Guus Hiddink as Chelsea's new manager on a three-year deal.

Zola, who now coaches Al Arabi in the Middle East, told beIN Sports: "He is a great coach, has done so well in Italy, he has some very good qualities, strong character and is the man who can start a new cycle (of success) for Chelsea so I hope things go well for him.

"He has very strong ideas, very determined and is very disciplined. He will bring all these qualities to Chelsea and hopefully he will be able to integrate into the culture.

"He has already coached in Italy, all these things, the language, they can influence the results, but he will bring self discipline and determination, as well as tactical awareness and all these things can be good for Chelsea.

"Conte is one of those managers like Guardiola, like Simeone, like Mourinho. They have got the careers to manage big teams. The results will tell us whether it is right or not but I really hope so."

He added: "You have to get into the language, the culture of the people. It can be very quick, it depends on you. But he's a very intelligent person so I'm sure it will be very quick and I think he will have the support of a great club and this is very, very important."