Antonio Conte Questions Chelsea's Ambition

[Dave]

Antonio Conte says questions over Chelsea's ambition to compete with Manchester City should be directed to the club, not him.

Reigning champions Chelsea are 22 points behind Premier League leaders City ahead of their game at the Etihad on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Premier League.

Conte has appeared to publicly criticise Chelsea's transfer policy since their title success in his first campaign in charge, and on Friday warned Manchester City's financial possibilities means they could be even better next season.

The Chelsea head coach has accepted a top-four finish is now the primary objective, but directed reporters elsewhere when quizzed on whether that will remain the top target in future years.

"I don't know," said Conte. "This is not a question for me, about the ambition.

"The club has to show the ambition, not the coach. The coach has to work every day very hard but the club has to show the ambition."

Manchester City followed up their Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal with a second 3-0 victory over the Gunners inside a week on Thursday, and Conte believes Pep Guardiola's side seem "unstoppable".

But asked whether he is concerned by the increasing dominance of City, Conte said: "No, because every club has to understand which is the target of the club.

"We must have great admiration for this team, because they are having a fantastic path in this season.

"Sometimes it's very difficult to find a weakness in this team.

"But I think when you work very well and there is a great feeling between the manager and the club - then you can work in the way you want to try and improve the team because also Man City has the possibility to spend a lot of money.

"When you link this situation - a good manager, money to spend on the transfer market, and this ambition - this is the final result."

[Spike]

Chelsea are weirdos. They want to win but are apprehensive to spend like the other clubs, while at the same time spunking huge amounts of money. They'd rather take a gamble on three £30,000,000 players than one £90,000,000 player in the hopes they'd become world class. They also have no interest in the the youth players, treating the academy as a factory to produce players and sell them for profit. It's an organistion born of the business nature of world football. They want to keep their hegemony as an elite club, so they only need to win every other year, but they don't want to spend too put themselves into the spending stratosphere of Barcelona, PSG, Man Utd, and Real Madrid.

The club enjoys it's status quo as an occasional winner, huge profiteer; neither going on a losing streak like Arsenal, or creating dominance like Man Utd did.

[Danny]

I wouldn't say Chelsea are an occasional winner, there are three clubs that can win the league in England due to money. Chelsea have won it 5 times in 12 years, with a Champions League and four FA Cups. United have also won the league 5 times in that time period.

To put that into context, Real Madrid have won 4 league titles in that time.

Chelsea definitely aren't spending like they used to, but that spending is hard to sustain at any time, let alone when getting ready to build a new stadium.

[6666]

I don't think you can really criticise any club that doesn't spend like Man City. Money is pretty close to nothing for their owners. An expensive signing not working out isn't even reported as them messing up as everyone knows it doesn't matter. They're basically a poison to football like PSG and ironically it's Chelsea that were a gateway to these two clubs.

[True Blue]

We should just all accept that he is walking this season no matter what he achieves. He is counting the days until the end of the season.

[Smiley Culture]

Well, that's him gone then. Once you start slating the club, there's no way back and the working relationship will break down further till the manager eventually goes. 

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, Cannabis said:

He's been gone for a while now, I'm actually surprised that he's still there as I thought he would have walked already.

Ditto

[carefreeluke]

Needs to stop moaning, would have known what he was walking into.

We have lost to Watford, Bournemouth, West Ham,  Palace and Burnley. If we had won these games (or even 3 of them) we'd be in a much more comfortable position and these results are nothing to do with the lack of ambition and solely down to him and to a lesser extent the players.

[The Liquidator]

[Harry]

16 hours ago, SirBalon said:

Ditto

Maybe he'd rather be let go so he gets his severance package? 

[True Blue]

6 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Conte is someone who strikes me as being very proud. I think he would rather walk and keep his head held high than have a sacking on his CV.

Probably gonna be the case, walk in the summer 

[Honey Honey]

12 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Conte is someone who strikes me as being very proud. I think he would rather walk and keep his head held high than have a sacking on his CV.

Or wants people to think he is, just like he wants people to think he has hair

[SirBalon]

18 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

Conte is someone who strikes me as being very proud. I think he would rather walk and keep his head held high than have a sacking on his CV.

I would definitely expect him to separate business from honour mate.  He has no emotional connections to Chelsea and hasn't been there long enough to have created even a bit.  Also the way clubs run in the modern era especially a club like Chelsea, it doesn't lend itself to get emotionally connected.

[Cicero]

We've hired "yes" men before, and look how they turned out. 

As far as our spending goes, those saying we aren't spending like we used to need to realise that we are spending the same amount (even moreso) as we usually do. Just not effectively. 

Chelsea are indeed very weird.