Amidst reports that there is a rift between himself and Chelsea Football Club leadership, manager Antonio Conte maintains that he will continue being his usual candid self, even if it costs him his job. Conte says his personality is one of brutal honesty, and he’s not going to be changing it in order to conform.
The Italian also claims that he is not worried about his job security, in spite of owner Roman Abramovich’s extremely itchy trigger finger, and the fact the Blues do not have very good prospects when for securing a trophy this season.
They’re currently 15 points off the top of the table, sitting in third place, three points adrift of both directions up or down. They eliminated from the League Cup this week, but remain alive in the FA Cup. Chelsea advanced to the knockout round of the Champions League, but face a really tough draw in Barcelona.
“I’m in this way. For sure I’m not a diplomatic man. I think you can see this,” Antonio Conte said.
“[Those] who know me very well, they know I’m not a diplomatic man. At the same time, I think I’m very honest. And when you are honest with yourself and with others, no one [can think] me a failure. I’m sure if I try to change myself, it’s right to stop, to stop my career when I was a footballer, to stop my career as a coach.”
“I repeat: I think the honest person speaks very clearly in every moment. If you are fake, you try always to not tell the truth, to try to find a way to… I prefer to be honest, to tell the truth in every moment. I hate the fake person.”
Fake is one of the pejorative labels Conte has tossed at Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho during their well publicized and extremely ugly feud earlier this month. Conte says he is no politician and he won’t back down, even if his candor leads to his getting sacked. Asked about this, Conte responded in a laughing manner and said:
“This is a good question, but I answered you before.”
There have been reports this week claiming that Chelsea brass are growing increasingly frustrated with Conte’s publicly saying he doesn’t have much influence on roster personnel and their actions in the transfer market. His remarks about not having the financial resources of the Manchester clubs, and how much that inhibits him obviously didn’t sit well either. Club director Marina Granovskaia, a right hand woman of Abramovich, handles transfer talks, and there were plenty of reports in the summer that she and Antonio Conte were far apart on some issues.
There seems to be plenty of sentiment that Conte will not be back for a third season at Chelsea.
The manager of the defending league champions says he’s not worried about his future, even as he acknowledges the ridiculously high turnover for people in his current position.
“My only worry is to work, only to work very hard,” Conte said.
“For sure if you look at the stats you can see that in 14 years 10 managers were sacked in this club. The stats are this, but at the same time when you are sure about your work and that you are doing everything to improve this club and to work with the players, I am very relaxed, calm and I don’t have this type of worry.”
Typically, whenever the media steer the conversation towards the row with those who Antonio Conte answers to, he changes the subject to those who answer to him, his players, and how much he gets along with them.
“I’m repeating always the same thing – I’m the coach,” Conte added.
“My task is to try to do the best for this club, to try to improve my players for this club.”
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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