Antonio Conte has been speaking in his usual weekly press conference ahead of Sunday’s clash with Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, and he had some interesting comments ahead of the game.
Speaking on the subject of Mo Salah, who was a Chelsea player before he moved on to play in Italy while Conte was managing there, the coach said that it would have been “very difficult to predict” this kind of astonishing breakthrough season for the Egyptian.
Conte says he had no influence over the sale of Salah at Chelsea. "The situation was very clear, no one asked me about him. I don't want to take this responsibility." He then laughs. #CFC #CHELIV
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) May 4, 2018
Conte joins a long list of managers who have admitted that they didn’t expect this kind of improvement in such a short period of time. The assembled press then pointed out that the Liverpool attacker’s transfer was completed after Conte had come to the club, but the Italian was at pains to point out that he had no say on that front, and he light-heartedly denied all responsibility for letting Salah leave the club permanently.
“I have never spoken about Salah… the situation was clear and no-one asked me about him, I don’t want to take responsibility”.
He had only just arrived when that transfer went through, so we can probably take his word for it this time.
