Italian could lose job for taking on Luiz, says Neville
THE decision to axe David Luiz could cost Chelsea manager Antonio Conte his job, according to Gary Neville. Sky Sports pundit Neville said recent Stamford Bridge history suggests there will only be one winner after the huge call to leave out Luiz yesterday following a training-ground bust-up. Neville said: ‘Every manager who has taken on the players here has gone pretty quickly. It is a big call because if you take on these players in that dressing room, where David Luiz is a big influence, a big character, you can lose at this club. This is not the end of this — this is the start. ‘Conte has won today, but in two or three weeks’ time if David Luiz is still sat on that bench, every time they concede a goal, the cameras will flip to David Luiz. It was the same with John Terry.’ Terry was infamously subbed at half-time by Jose Mourinho during a trouncing at Manchester City in 2015. Conte’s bust-up with Luiz is the latest falling-out between the manager and a star player at Chelsea. He has previously fallen out with Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic, who both left the club. Neville’s fellow pundit Graeme Souness believes it was a huge call by Conte. He said: ‘You can do it if you are in a position of strength. To do what he has done is an extremely big call. The only other defender on the bench was (Ethan) Ampadu, who is 17. It’s a hell of a big call and he got away with it. They’ve won and that is a reminder to everyone in that dressing room who the boss is. How many allies does David Luiz have in that dressing room? Maybe three or four who would side with him, and that is what makes the manager vulnerable. You’re not just falling out with one player, you’re falling out with four, five, six — those six could be worth £200million.’ Jamie Carragher, however, was full of praise for Conte, as the Sky pundit lauded the fact that this was a rare case of player power being thwarted. Carragher said: ‘I’m delighted he got away with it, delighted that he has done it. It is too much now — a manager losing his job because he has lost the dressing room, because the players have got the power. Forget the players, you are the manager, you pick the team.’ Conte also caused controversy at full time as he avoided shaking the hand of United manager Mourinho. ‘You want me to go and chase him in the middle of the pitch?’ Mourinho said. ‘I was there. I shook hands with the people who were there. I think one of them was his brother, the assistant (Gianluca Conte), so I feel by shaking the hands of his brother and the other assistants I did my duty. I can’t go and run to chase him.’ Conte responded by saying: ‘The handshake is not important, it is important to win the game.’ United are now eight points behind Manchester City and Mourinho said: ‘Eight points in the Premier League is not the same as eight points in the Portuguese league, La Liga, the Bundesliga. Eight points in the Premier League, there’s still a lot to play for.’