SHATTERED & SHAKEN
Champions as Arsenal are battered and boss has blueprint to retain the title Conte admits he nearly walked out on Chelsea after transfer angst YOU HAD IT COMING, COSTA Ant wants Mor cash to sign stars
ANTONIO CONTE has admitted that he did consider his future as Chelsea boss this summer.
The Italian has now signed a new two-year deal and said he was always desperate to stay at Stamford Bridge – but was left shattered by last season’s Premier League title success and wanted confirmation the Blues were on board with his long-term vision.
He clearly got enough assurances from the Chelsea hierarchy as he moved his wife Elisabetta and daughter Vittoria to London after they stayed behind in Italy last term.
Dynasty
But Conte, 47, who played down suggestions he nearly quit over rows about transfer targets, insisted that he needs to bring in more quality to boost the depth of his squad so he can build a dynasty of success at the Bridge.
He said: “My family is very important. And I think it shows my commitment to the club and this project to try and build something important.
“I must be honest, last season was very tough for me and my family. It wasn’t easy for me because sometimes when you win you think that everything is easy, but it wasn’t easy to win and have the success that we had.
“But I have decided with the club to continue our path. I spoke with the club and we all have the right view about the future. For every manager, it is important to explain your idea.
“It’s very important that the club understand your idea and the club is ready to work together and make a solid foundation. I can want this, but if I’m alone it’s very difficult to do this.
“My desire and the club’s was to continue this work and for this reason I have renewed my contract. Now everything is right to start working together and it’s very important to know that there is a lot of work to do.
“The most important thing for our club, players and fans, is that we are building something special. When you work in this way the present is very important, but also the future.
“I am staying now and I have the will to work so hard – to start from here and to try to arrive there in the future.”
The ex-Juventus and Italy manager spoke with the sort of passion which he showed on the touchline throughout last season’s title-winning success.
But he also laid out his plan to recreate a core resembling the early glory days of Jose Mourinho’s reign when Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were the backbone of the Chelsea squad.
Now Conte wants a similar spine of quality running through his team and he clearly feels he needs more signings. FURIOUS Antonio Conte has revealed his version of the bust-up with Diego Costa (left) – and insisted no player is bigger than the club. Conte was clearly infuriated by Costa’s claims that he was dumped by text message at the end of the season as the Italian said he was He confirmed t hat England star Gary Cahill will be his captain after Terry’s departure and that young defender Andreas Christensen will be part of his first-team squad.
Conte (right) is driven by trophies and a desire to win more with the Champions League also in his sights this season.
He won three titles in a row while in charge at Juventus and wants a similar run of success at Chelsea to transform them into the best team of the Premier League era.
Conte added: “It’s very difficult to retain the title as I remember from my first season at Juventus.
“It was great just to win that scudetto because before we beat AC Milan, they had Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Nesta, all important players.
“After this win, we disrupted Milan because then they sold Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva – they changed a lot of the team after we beat them.
“Then at Juventus we improved, improved, improved and now you can see there is a gap between Juventus and the rest.
“Now, at Chelsea, we must understand that we have a situation where we are building, too.” told in January following a training-ground row.
But Conte clearly had enough of Costa’s antics during the season and was anxious to offload him as quickly as possible, so he could start rebuilding the squad to make sure Chelsea maintain success in the long term.
Blues boss Conte said: “Only one player is not important. The
Gap
most important thing is the team, the squad and it’s important now to be together.
“You can’t just lose it after one player.
“I want to tell one thing to clarify the situation because in January the situation was very clear for the club, the player, for Costa, for his agent that when we arrived in June then it would be finished.” CHELSEA boss Antonio Conte has demanded that the club back him with a major summer spending spree – or risk another disastrous title defence. The arrival of Alvaro Morata will take Blues’ spending to £140million, but the Italian maintains it is still not enough to stave off a repeat of the 2015-16 campaign when they finished 10th the season after being crowned champions. He wants Swansea forward Fernando Llorente and full-backs Alex Sandro and Danilo from Juventus and Real Madrid, respectively. Conte said: “We are a great club, but we are in a moment where we can’t make a mistake as it’s very dangerous. “We can’t make mistakes. We need to improve and increase our squad and to be something important for the present, but also for our future.
Improve
“We must improve this season with new buys. To try to reach the same level of the other teams who stayed at the top, who have been working with players for many years.
“Last season, I utilised only 13 players regularly and we won the Premier League and made the final of the FA Cup.
“You can see that only 13 players made more than 10 appearances last season and it means we have to improve our squad, but the club knows this.
“To face four competitions this season we need more players and we are trying to find the right solution.”
Conte also insisted that he is comfortable with his new twoyear deal – which is not an extension – but has increased his annual salary to £10m.
He added: “I am happy. I said when we finished last season that I have two years to go. This is the right way to go – it gives me and the club motivation.”