CONTE: PEP’S MEN WILL RULE FOR YEARS

ANTONIO CONTE has warned that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have the perfect set-up to dominate for years. City are on the verge of replacing Chelsea as Premier League champions, having left the rest trailing in their wake and establishing a staggering 16-point lead with just 10 games to go. They finished third last season, 15 points behind Chelsea, but handed Guardiola more than £200million to spend in the summer and could be rewarded with as many as three trophies this term. And Conte (above) said: “I have great admiration for Pep. He showed himself to be a great coach. I think that now it will be very difficult for other teams to fight Manchester City. “When you have a great coach and the possibility to spend a lot of money and keep happy your coach and your staff, it’s difficult for the others. Very difficult. “This is a great danger for the panoramic of the other teams. For a long time the situation is going to improve. Not to stop, but to improve for them.”

As he talked up the ideal situation Guardiola finds himself in, Conte further hinted that he and the Blues hierarchy are not singing from the same hymn sheet especially as he highlighted the “great feeling between the manager [Guardiola] and the club”.

And the Catalan being able to “work the way you want and try and improve the team in the best way”.

In contrast, Conte has been at odds with his board over signings since brilliantly guiding Chelsea to the title against the odds last season.

When he was asked if, without being able to match City in the transfer market, a top-four place is now the height of Chelsea’s ambition, he said: “The club has to show ‘ambition’. I have great ambition, but I don’t have money to spend for Chelsea.

“The club knows very well what is my idea, what is my ambition. That is very clear.

“When you decide to work with this type of coach, you must understand that you take a coach with great ambition. Not a loser but a winner.”

Conte described City as “unstoppable” and admitted: “Sometimes it’s very difficult to find a weakness in this team.”

But the Blues boss cut a downbeat figure again yesterday and accepted he and his players should be unhappy that their title challenge was over a long time ago.

He said: “The league is finished this season. Manchester City won it in the first part of the season.

“This must be a great frustration for me, for my players, for my club. If your name is Chelsea, you have to try to fight until the end.

“For this reason, we must have great frustration for this.”