In his 14 years as Chelsea Football Club Owner, Roman Abramovich has not been trigger shy when it comes to sacking his managers. Therefore, when Abramovich came to watch training this past week and held a meeting with current manager Antonio Conte, speculation about Conte’s future with the club naturally arose.
Conte is a man who’s constantly being linked with a return to his Italian homeland, and names of potential replacements have already been tossed about.
However, Conte maintains that he’s on good terms with Abramovich, and that even if the axe does fall on his head, it’s not a huge deal to him. He also believes that he’s truly earned his time to stay at Stamford Bridge given the Premier League title that he accomplished last season.
“I have to stay with my fingers crossed. Honestly, I think I earned my time here with the win of last season,” Conte said smiling ahead of tomorrow’s crunch clash with Manchester United at hime.
“I don’t like to ask for time. I like to tell the truth. The situation is very clear: my task is to work and to put all myself for this club.
“Then if it’s enough? OK. If it’s not enough? OK. The same. I will continue to live.”
Conte then, perhaps unintentionally, or maybe with complete intention, threw some shade at his predecessor Jose Mourinho, by saying it was a miracle that he won the league title last season given what he inherited.
“If we think I click my fingers and we are ready to fight. It’s not simple. Last season happened. A miracle,” Conte continued. “It was a miracle, because we had the same players that the season before finished 10th.”
Given the war of words between Mourinho and Conte this season, expect the current Manchester United boss to hit back at him in response to this. Only time will tell if Conte eventually suffers the same exact fate at Chelsea as Mourinho- sacked by Abramovich the very next season after winning a title.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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