Conte determined to find a silver lining
Coach to work with club over squad strength League may have gone but trophies can be won
Antonio Conte says his players will not lose motivation despite seeing their grip on the title further loosened – but he will be holding talks with the Chelsea board to ensure they have a squad capable of meeting new year trophy ambitions.
Chelsea head into today’s fixture with Brighton with little hope of catching Manchester City and retaining the Premier League given the 16-point gap at the halfway stage. The Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup still offer realistic hope of silverware for Conte and, although the Italian’s frustrations in the transfer market last summer are well documented, he expects the club will work together to ensure there is depth in the squad to compete. “Yes, but I think this consideration must be done with the club,” said Conte.
“I will give my opinion when I speak with the club. But in the end the club has always the last word – like in the summer, like last season, and it will be the same in the window in January. Then we will divide the responsibility with me and with the club. Not only the club, not only with me … we will do it together. It is not the right time now to talk about who we will sign. I am very happy to work with these players.
“The situation is simple. I am very happy to work with my players, and if then if the squad is big enough to play all these games in all competitions, then only time will tell.
“We have to try to work to put all of ourselves into every game with the squad we have. We are fighting, we are fighting for the best position in the league, for the Champions League and the Carabao Cup. We will see. I think we are doing a really good job with the squad we have and at the moment we have to continue this way.”
Amid the inevitability of a title concession, there is some reassurance for Chelsea.
Their most recent Premier League wins led to a period of boom and bust, a succession of triumphant managers clearing their desks within a year. The suspicion lingers Conte may eventually follow that trend, but there can be no accusation his players have stopped playing for their manager in the way they did with Jose Mourinho during their last title defence.
Although Chelsea are 10 points worse off than at the halfway stage a year ago, Conte has no cause to doubt the application of his players. He felt his side deserved to win their last game, at Goodison Park, which ended 0-0.
“My task is to bring an important motivation in every game, and to this point my players have given me always great responses. At Everton they did, the last game too,” said Conte. “Sometimes it can happen you can drop points, but this was Everton, a good team, and it is not simple to play away against them. Yet we dropped a point in an unfair way.
“When you see your team produce such a big effort as we did at Everton, then I am happy. I like the attitude and effort of my players.”