Conte rubbishes Inter Milan rumors but remains front-page news in Italy

In his pre-match press conference yesterday, Antonio Conte was asked about the most recent round of transfer rumors linking him with a sensational move to Inter Milan, where new sporting director Walter Sabatini is looking to engineer a revolution for new owners Suning.

Unsurprisingly, Conte didn’t have much to say about them — this isn’t and shouldn’t be the focus, whether the rumors are about him or his players — but also made it pretty clear just exactly where his future lies.

“I have a contract with Chelsea, for two years. It is logical when you start the work in a new club, the will is to continue to work, you work, for many years. For sure this is my will.”

“Now the most important thing [in] this moment for me and my players [is] to be focused...”

“It is not important the single person now, me or the future of the players, we must be focused on the next game. In this moment it is normal to have a lot of speculation, on me the players the coaches, we can't lose the focus, now the moment is very important for us.”

-Antonio Conte; source: Football.London

Speculation may be normal, but the level of attention from the Italian media has bordered at times on the Spanish media’s obsession with Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois. This sort of thing cannot be healthy, especially when you consider the amount of flip-flopping that also goes on from day to day.

Conte, Pochettino, Spalletti, Simeone ... Inter are throwing all the names out there and seeing if they hit paydirt with one of them. And even as Juventus advance to the Champions League final, some newspapers still found time to put Conte front and center instead, with Corriere dello Sport among those claiming that Inter have not been stayed by Chelsea’s hands-off warning this week and intend to come back with another offer. Unfortunately for them, it’s not all about money for Conte.

"When you reach a type of level the money could be important, but it is not all. When you stay at this level the money only explains your value, it is not important. If you work in football before as a footballer, stay at the top level for many years, then the same when you become a coach I don't think money is as important, it is important thing is to win and to write the history of the club where you work. Money is important, but not all."

-Antonio Conte; source: Football.London

At least the other papers did remember that Conte could actually win the Premier League title tonight, and what a sweet accomplishment that would be!

“Now the most important thing is to reach our target, because to arrive at this moment, in this position and have a great opportunity, we have worked very hard. Now we need to be ready and do this step and to win and then to celebrate together."

-Antonio Conte; source: Football.London

Apparently the thing to do is to strip your head coach down to his skivvies and throw him into the icebath.

Well, you know what to do, JT, Azpi & Co.