On Thursday, we covered an interview with Giani Di Biasi in Gazzetta dello Sport where the current Albania manager explained that Chelsea’s Conte did not have a ‘direct relationship’ with Roman Abramovich.
This corroborated previous claims from the Italian media that Antonio Conte wasn’t exactly thrilled with the support from the Russian oligarch, never getting the money in January he wanted to bolster his squad for the second half of the season, leading to ‘broken promises’ and such.
And if Friday’s Tuttosport claims are true, then the relationship between the two Chelsea men isn’t getting any better, with their visions about how the Blues should proceed in the next transfer market being miles apart.
The Italian newspaper claim that, after the 2-1 away win against Stoke, Roman Abramovich decided to meet Antonio Conte for dinner to make him a rather attractive proposition: “I’ll give you Neymar as a present”.
Chelsea had apparently managed to reach a ‘verbal agreement’ with Barcelona that would see the Brazilian forward move to Stamford Bridge for a world record €180m (£156m), but Conte said ‘no’.
Instead of having the Brazil international as a member of his squad next season, the former Juventus manager instead asked for that money to be spent on 3-4 players who he believed would benefit his team more than one single superstar.
The reason behind this meeting and surprise by Abramovich is said to be due to Inter Milan’s desire to see Antonio Conte on their bench next season, with the Chelsea owner hoping the promise of Neymar would convince him to stay.
However, Tuttosport say that while the transfer situation was discussed, the Italian manager asked for talks about his future to be postponed for the time being.
Inter’s new owner, Zhang Jindong, has apparently already contacted Chelsea and Abramovich about their manager, yet whatever decision is taken about Conte’s future, it will be the 47-year-old who will have the final word.
Tuttosport then go over the relationship between Conte and his club’s owner since the start of the season, with tempers already flaring when the Juan Cuadrado situation was unfolding, with the Italian wanting to keep him rather than see him go to Juventus.
We all know how that ended…
Furthermore, the Italian newspaper claim that none of this summer’s transfers were the ones that Conte asked for.
With the Premier League practically already at Stamford Bridge, the club’s next aim is to win the Champions League again.
Will next season’s attempt at doing so be with Conte at the helm? Tuttosport just end with “Conte isn’t one to forget”.
While a lot of these claims appear to be rather bold, this story of an Abramovich-Conte conflict within Chelsea just doesn’t seem to want to go away.
This is the third source reporting a rift between the two, and the more report it, the likelier it is there’s some truth to it.
We’ll have to wait until the end of the season, but our gut feeling is that Conte will stay, but if Abramovich doesn’t back him according to his plans, the Italian manager could easily make a surprising exit, just like he did at Juventus a few years ago.
