Antonio Conte has had a mixed start to his time in charge of the club, but the convincing victory over Manchester United has helped the club go on an upward curve of optimism. Moving from managing the Italian national team to Chelsea was a big change for Conte, and he’s been speaking to the Italian media about possibly regretting it.
That’s not because he wasn’t happy to be joining Chelsea, but because he’d built a bond with the national squad and was happy with how they responded to him.
Speaking to Sky Italia (via Calciomercato), Conte explained: “There was even a time when I have regretted that I’d already decided to change.”
There’s been much rumoured about Conte’s relationship with Roman Abramovich, which has been pretty much the same for every Chelsea manager since the Russian billionaire took over the club.
Naturally, the Italian media were interested to know what Abramovich is like, and Conte said what was expected, with his words hardly a surprise to anyone.
“He is demanding but very passionate… He comes so often to see the training and stay with the group. He wants to know and this is beautiful. Here the structure is extraordinary and I work more than in Italy.”
Conte explained that he has a wider role at Chelsea than he had previously at Juventus, something which had become an issue with the Turin club on transfers. That would suggest that Conte is indeed getting his own way with transfers at Chelsea.
