Despite the fact that he’s only eight months removed from winning the Premier League title, Chelsea FC Manager Antonio Conte still has an uncertain future at his current club. Conte has guided the Blues to the knockout round of the UEFA Champions League, and his team remains alive in the race for top four in league play. Chelsea can still win the FA Cup and EFL Cup tournaments as well.
Yet his long-term status at Stamford Bridge remains very much in doubt. The Italian had his current deal, which expires in June 2019, recently restructured, but not extended. Reports in Italy this season have linked him with a return home in the not too distant future.
Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich is notorious for having an itchy trigger finger when it comes to sacking his managers. In 2015, Jose Mourinho was axed just seven months after winning a league title. Given Stamford Bridge’s reputation as a sacking club, rumors of Conte’s potential demise have continued to resurface whenever the Blues have suffered a major setback this season.
Reports of discord between Antonio Conte and upper management following a bizarre and disappointing summer transfer window have only fueled more speculation that Conte could be on the way out.
There have been media narratives in the press naming Luis Enrique or Massimiliano Allegri as his possible successor. Typically, Conte avoids discussing such speculation on his future, but he actually tackled the issue at a news conference today.
“Everything is possible,” Antonio Conte said.
“I have another year of contract at this club, but in football everything in possible. Football is this. For the manager of this club it is normal to have this type of situation.”
“If you won the league last season and reach the final of the FA Cup, this is the history. I have a lot of experience to deal with this situation.”
He then pointed out the “sacking club culture” that the media often projects on to Chelsea, referencing all the reports claiming his termination could be imminent following the season opening disaster against Burnley.
“There is something strange that after the first game we lost against Burnley the press pushed quickly to sack me,” Conte continued.
“In other clubs this doesn’t happen. I trust in my work and what we are doing in these two seasons. In football, anything can happen and you must be ready.”
Antonio Conte is known to be a hard-liner, who wants things his way, and sometimes that doesn’t gel with other similarly strong personalities.
Also, the achievement standards for a Chelsea manager are as high as anywhere in world football.
Thus, in spite of everything that Conte has accomplished, his long term future at the club is very much in doubt.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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