Conte will be made or flayed in Chelsea by board battle

NOW Antonio Conte truly knows what it is like to be the Chelsea manager.

But as the negative noise surrounding his fractious relationship with the Blues board gets louder and louder, the Italian is determined to battle on.

And Conte (right) insists that it is part and parcel of life as a Chelsea manager.

“I read about the history of this club – and it was the same for the other coaches.

“I don’t see a difference between me and the other coaches that managed this situation.

“If you look at the stats, you can see that in 14 years 10 managers were sacked in this club.”

To be precise eight have been sacked and Guus Hiddink, twice, and Rafa Benitez have left after spells as caretaker or interim boss.

There are growing suspicions that this season will be Conte’s last at Stamford Bridge, as he is added to the list of casualties.

Given the chance to pour cold water on the talk of increasing tensions between himself and the club’s hierarchy, he would only say: “I can tell that I will continue to work very hard for this club, the players, our fans. In this aspect I am very relaxed and focused to try to do our best. “If I remember the start of the season, I said maybe this will be the most difficult one for me. “I think that I have a great capacity to see very long into the future. “But we must be focused and continue to put in everything, every day and know we have to face great difficulties. “If you know this you are more ready to face this type of situation.” And defiant Conte reckons that when he has his back against the wall it brings out the best in him. Ahead of the Blues’ fourth-round FA Cup tie with Newcastle, the former Italy and Juventus coach insisted: “People who know me very well understand that I don’t avoid the difficulties in front of me. “I try every day, through the hard work I do, to overcome these problems. “I am a specialist in this type of situation.”