Chelsea winger Willian has blasted the club’s former manager Antonio Conte. Despite having led the Blues to FA Cup glory during his last game in charge, Conte was recently sacked as manager of the club and has been replaced by Maurizio Sarri.
Willian and Conte did not enjoy a good relationship and the Brazilian struggled to earn regular game-time last term as the Stamford Bridge outfit had a below-par season, finishing fifth overall in the Premier League standings. Conte preferred Pedro in favor of Willian and this led to the latter being linked with a move away from the Bridge this summer.
Perhaps the funniest moment of Willian’s relationship with Conte came in May when he took to social network Instagram to post a picture of the Blues celebrating with the trophy while the Italian was blocked out by three trophies. The player has since said that this was caused by his daughter playing with his cellphone.
Despite being strongly linked with the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona, it now looks likely that Willian will remain at Chelsea this season. He is expected to be a key part of the first-team under Sarri.
Willian certainly hopes that playing under Sarri will be very different to playing under Conte.
“I hope he is not like Conte,” he told ESPN Brazil as reported by The Standard. “No, I’m kidding!
“For me, Conte was a manager who was very difficult to work with. His philosophy, his way of dealing with things is very complicated. There were a few games … Sometimes we just don’t understand. You’re playing very well, then you get substituted. I do not understand. There were two times when I got substituted and I went straight to the locker room. It was hard to work with him.”
There is no doubt that the Chelsea board will expect Sarri to build a side that can challenge for major silverware. Judging from how the Blues played on Sunday during their 2-0 Community Shield defeat against Manchester City, plenty of improvements need to be made if they want to be on par with the big guns.
