Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is at it again. He’s complaining about the Premier League and their television broadcast partners, for the schedule they made, which he feels is out to get him and his side. That’s right, this time Conte took his slamming the fixture list bit up a notch- saying it’s not a coincidence that his team is playing an opponent on extra rest than the Blues for the fourth time.
In other words, Antonio Conte is actually saying there’s a conspiracy against him and his team.
He was asked if he felt his team was being penalized with the timing of today’s match against Newcastle United, and he replied:
“Yes, I must be honest. It happened again. Newcastle played on Tuesday night, we played on Wednesday night and now we have to play again on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. It has happened again. I don’t want to complain, but … once it can happen.
“Against Watford we should have played on Monday and then they changed it to Saturday at 12.30 p.m. after we played on Wednesday (in the Champions League).
“Once it can happen. Twice it can happen. against Manchester City. The third time, you start to be perplexed. And now against Newcastle. I don’t want advantages for my team. I want the same rest as our opponents. Is it very difficult to do this?
“I don’t think so. I think now there is a strange coincidence.”
This really was an epic rant, and it continued on.
“I want to protect my club, I want to try to protect my players, I want to try to protect my fans, also I want to try to protect the Premier League. Now we have 11 points less than Manchester City. Yes, but if you remember when we played Manchester City they rested one day more than us,” Conte added.
“We played against Liverpool, they rested one day more than us. Now again, in only 14 games (it has happened) four times. It is very difficult to think that this is a coincidence, honestly.”
It’s interesting he brought up Liverpool, because in the week leading up to that match Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp called out Conte, and pointed out some of the flaws in his argument. Ok that was then, getting back to today.
“I don’t want advantages, I want the same rest for my players as our opponents. Only this. If we have to play every two days, I’m ready. But we need to have the same rest as our opponents, then we will see what happens.”
“If you give one day more of rest and when you play every three days, you have injuries and the squad is this, you can find a lot of difficulties. This is not a complaint.
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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