Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’M STILL TRUE BLUE SAYS ANT
ANTONIO CONTE has told his players to man up and insisted he is not even thinking about leaving Chelsea.
Conte gave his squad a rallying cry yesterday after they returned to training following a disastrous 4-1 defeat at Watford.
That left Conte in serious danger of the sack and his problems have continued to mount with striker
Alvaro Morata in danger of missing the rest of the season through injury. But Conte was in defiant mood and made it perfectly clear he is going nowhere ahead of Monday’s game with West Brom at Stamford Bridge. He said: “I’m not thinking for only one moment about the possibility of going away from this club. I repeat, my commitment is totally for this club, like that of my players.
“But, as you know very well because we are talking about football, a lot of times – I don’t agree with this – the manager and the coach depends on the results. In this case, we are having poor results. For this reason, we have to pay great attention.”
Morata has not played in nearly a month because of a long-running back injury and, despite training this week, has got no return date.
Conte admitted he is concerned about one of his most important players and confessed that he does not even know whether Morata will play again this season.
He said: “We are talking a lot about bad results but sometimes we forget we are facing a serious situation. Players like Morata, for us, are very important and have been missing for a long period of time.
“I don’t know how long he will be out. We are struggling a lot to find a solution to solve the pain in his back. If you ask me whether he needs a day, a month or the rest of the season, I don’t know. I don’t know.
“For this reason, I’m a bit worried. You know very well the importance of the player.”