MIRACLE WORKER
Conte is so proud at putting Blues back on top
ANTONIO CONTE reckons ‘The Italian Job’ he has done at Chelsea has been the best work of his managerial career.
Conte made his name at Juventus in Turin – the setting for the famous movie starring Blues fan Michael Caine.
He secured three successive Serie A titles with Juventus before moving on to coach the Italy national team.
After Chelsea’s dismal 10th-place finish last season, nobody gave Conte much chance of ‘blowing the bloody doors off ’ and bagging the riches that come with winning the Premier League.
They started the season a 6-1 shot with the bookies and drifted to 20s after losing 3-0 at Arsenal in September.
That forced Conte to speed up his planned tactical changes and he switched to a now much-copied 3-4-3 formation – and Chelsea have never looked back.
At the weekend, after the 4-2 FA Cup semifinal win over biggest title rivals Tottenham, Conte spoke of how tough it had been taking over a team in transition, with ageing stalwarts Branislav Ivanovic and John Obi Mikel shipped out and skipper John Terry relegated to a bit-part role.
Nobody thought the Blues were capable of regaining the title, he said, and he admitted what he had done in his debut season at Stamford Bridge had surprised even him.
“I think we must be proud,” he said. “The players, the club, myself.
Achievement
“We must be proud of this season. It wasn’t easy to have this type of season, to reach the final of the FA Cup and fight to the end for the title with the possibility of winning it.
“We must be proud. But we reached this target only through our work. Work, work, work.
‘‘It’s very important for me and also for the players, for the future, to understand that, without this work, it’s very difficult to have this type of situation.”
The Blues can go seven points clear of Tottenham with a victory at home to Southampton tonight.
Asked whether winning the title in his first season at Stamford Bridge would be his greatest achievement as a manager, Conte said: “Yes, for sure. For me, for the players, for the club.
“I think, now, to win the title in England is a great achievement. A top achievement for the coach, the players and the club.
“To win in England these days is not easy. To win this league is difficult.
“We must know that now it’s a good season. It will remain a good season. But we want it to become a great season, a fantastic season. To become a great or fantastic season there is only one way – to try and win.”
Conte, though, angrily dismissed claims from Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas that playmaker Eden Hazard needed to be more selfish.
Fabregas claimed Chelsea’s Belgium ace could be in the same league as Argentina and Barcelona star Lionel Messi if he went for goal himself more often.
But Conte insisted Fabregas was wrong. “Absolutely not,” he said when asked if he agreed with the Spain star.
“I don’t think that a player like Messi is a selfish player. The first target for every great champion is to play for the team and to put your talent into the team.
“The best players in the world do not exist without a team. For me, it’s sad to listen to this, that a player must be more selfish to reach the top level. That is very sad.
“It’s not my idea of football and I will never understand this. Never, never. In my team, I don’t want selfish players.
“I prefer to lose a game than to have a selfish player. I don’t want this and I can’t accept this. I don’t want my club to buy me a selfish player one day. Never. No.”