I’M STILL A TRUE BLUE
Conte “not even thinking” about leaving
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 when they returned to training, after being given three days off following the disastrous defeat at Watford.
That left Conte in serious danger of the sack and his problems have continued to mount as the Blues boss admitted Alvaro Morata could miss the rest of the season.
But the Italian was in defiant mood and made it perfectly clear he is going nowhere ahead of Monday’s game with West Brom at Stamford Bridge. Conte said: “I’m not thinking for 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.” Striker 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 and confessed he does not even know whether Morata will play again this term. Conte 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 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’m a bit worried. You know very well the importance of the player. Olivier Giroud has trained and will be in contention.”
The last time Chelsea lost three games in a row was November 2015, which led to Jose Mourinho being sacked and Conte admits results must improve.
He added: “Every single player knows very well we have to try to improve. The most important thing is to look at ourselves, and not the others. We have to prepare well for this game.”