I Miss Italy – Antonio Conte

Antonio Conte has said in a recent interview that it is a “matter of fact” that he misses Italy, adding that he will most likely not spend the rest of his coaching career abroad.

“For me, I do miss Italy and this I can say without any doubt, there is certainly no thought in my mind of remaining abroad for a long time,” he said. “Italy is my country so, once I’ve had a good, learning experience, I will return to Italy.

“I don’t know when it will be, but I’ll come back. It’s always hard to predict the future, especially for us coaches because it’s one of the riskiest jobs around — today you are in one place, tomorrow you are in another because you are dependent on results. As far as I am concerned, I always want to finish a project and for things to go the right way, but if you ask me if I miss Italy, then yes I do miss Italy, this is a matter of fact.

“Definitely this experience in England has enriched me a lot in all aspects. Like I said, it’s not easy.
In Italy, you have the comfort with the language, the way of life, the habits and you find people who are used to this way of life, so that makes it easier. I’m improving in many ways and in the future I don’t know, maybe I’d like to try something different, maybe be a director or something else. Become a sporting director? I could.”

“You have got to get used to a different language and this leads to a substantial loss of energy as you need to concentrate to work in a different language,” Conte said. “For me, it’s not easy to coach abroad.

“You find an atmosphere which is incredible in the stadiums, fans come to live the event and a festival and last year I saw scenes which left me open mouthed. I recall when we played against Middlesbrough and we beat them, earning almost certainly the title and sending them down, but the whole stadium of Middlesbrough was applauding their team.

“It was the same with Sunderland. They live football like a celebration. It matters to them that the players give everything for the shirt they are wearing, more than the result.”

“Definitely the English league is very, very difficult because there are six sides challenging for it, and this year there are even more big clubs, with the two Manchester clubs back who didn’t do so well last year, Tottenham, who are a very, very good team, together with Liverpool and Arsenal — it’s a battle and you cannot say who will win the league.

“I’ve not been set any particular objectives. We’re just looking to do better than last year. You build success over a process. As far as the Champions League is concerned, I think it’s a process a team have got to go through; you’ve got to try to improve your squad year on year to make it more competitive, with good quality, prepared players.

“Sometimes people think you can win overnight, but to win you have to be good at constructing and working with and improving your squad.”

Chelsea face Atletico Madrid in their second Champions League fixture of the season on Wednesday with Conte not looking beyond this that stage which includes Serie A side Roma in the next one.

“I don’t think we’ve been lucky with the draw as we’ve got one of toughest groups,” he said. “Atletico have always done well in recent years, reaching the final and semifinals, and they’ve got a good squad with a lot of experience.

“We’re back after let’s call it a sabbatical year, with a lot of enthusiasm and we’ve got the aim to do the best in this competition, which is very difficult. Roma are competitive in Italy and they can be equally competitive in the Champions League, so we’ve got to be careful.”