Antonio Conte is “very relaxed” about the prospect of being sacked by Chelsea amid reports of strained relations between the head coach and club.
Speaking before Chelsea’s FA Cup fourth-round clash with Newcastle United tomorrow, Conte said that he was not worried about his future as speculation about managers was part of “the history of this club”. Yesterday, The Times reported that the relationship between the Italian and Marina Granovskaia, the club’s key transfer negotiator, had become strained.
Conte has repeatedly made clear his frustration at the club’s transfer policy, insisting that they were responsible for “every single player”. Conte and Granovskaia are said to often communicate through Carlo Cudicini, the assistant coach, such is their fraught relationship.
When it was put to Conte that almost all of those coaches who came before him were sacked, he said: “My only worry is to work, to work very hard. For sure if you look at the stats you can see in 14 years that ten managers were sacked in this club. But at the same time, when you are sure about your work, when you are sure you are doing everything to improve this club, then I’m very, very relaxed, very calm. I don’t have these worries.
“I saw a bit of the history of this club in the past and it was the same for the other coaches. I don’t see a difference between me and the other coaches.
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“I have great respect first of all for my job, for my players, for our fans. Under this aspect, I’m very relaxed and focused to try to do my best. If you remember at the start of the season I said maybe this will be the most difficult season for me. I think that I have a great capacity to see very far ahead — not just ten minutes.”
Despite the speculation, Conte is in no mood to slow down or walk away from difficulties he faces on the pitch. His side have won twice in seven games, including a penalty shoot-out victory over Norwich City in a third-round replay.
“People who know me very well know that I don’t stop,” he said. “I try every day, through hard work, to overcome difficulties. It’s not for all. I’m a specialist in this kind of situation.”
Such has been Conte’s commitment to improving results that the Italian says he finds it difficult to sleep and spends many late nights watching replays of matches while his wife sleeps. “Everyone knows that I live this job with great passion and great love,” he said. “For this reason, it happens that I don’t sleep, especially when you have to face difficult situations and you want to try to do the best for the team, the players, the fans, the club.
“To play every few days right now is not simple for us. We have to hope to have all players available, otherwise we have to try to invent something before the game or during the game.
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“So, when I don’t sleep I continue to work with a computer, all night. I don’t want to create a problem for my wife, so I go in another room, the living room, and sometimes I start to work, watch a game or find a new solution. To watch a game many times is important so you can understand the positives and negatives and improve your team, especially when you lose.”
Chelsea’s most recent game was the defeat by Arsenal on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup semi-final, and they have significant injury problems for the tie against Newcastle, with Álvaro Morata (back), Willian (hamstring) and Thibaut Courtois (ankle) ruled out. It means a full debut for Ross Barkley is increasingly likely, even though he is not fully match fit.
“After a bad injury you need a bit of time to be fit 100 per cent,” Conte said. “But if we want to accelerate this process he has to play, not only in the training sessions — and especially in this moment after the Willian and Morata injuries. We don’t have other options.”
Lampard: it’s time to spend
Frank Lampard has warned Chelsea that they risk falling behind Manchester City and Manchester United if they don’t spend heavily. The former Chelsea player told talkSPORT: “They lost big players [last summer] in [Nemanja] Matic and [Diego] Costa and they did buy some but I think the manager wasn’t that happy with that. There need to be some serious questions in the summer, to say: ‘OK, everyone else is recruiting around us, the Manchester clubs in particular.’ And you are going to have to match that to a degree to stay in the game.”