Antonio Conte believes his Chelsea side could have wrestled some titles off Manchester City if he was granted two key signings.
Conte and Pep Guardiola both arrived in the Premier League in the same summer of 2016 and it was the Italian who enjoyed the better start.
While Manchester City took time to adapt to their new manager’s unique methods, Conte saw instant results at Stamford Bridge.
The Italian won the league to become just the second manager after Jose Mourinho to prevent Guardiola from doing so, with Jurgen Klopp becoming the third in 2020.
City finished third – behind Tottenham – in Guardiola’s first campaign but the two managers’ fortunes changed drastically afterwards.
The Blues romped to the title and became the first team to reach 100 points the next season while Chelsea dropped to 5th.
Conte was sacked that summer while Guardiola is still going strong at the Etihad today.
Antonio Conte thinks it could have been different
However, Conte believes things could have been different. He says that if Chelsea managed to sign his top targets Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku then they could have gone on to win more titles.
“It’s not easy. Guardiola is the best coach in the world,” Conte said in an interview with the Telegraph.
“And then when you can match the best coach in the world with a club that can back you and can invest to bring in important players to improve the team every season because they want to stay at the top of the world, then it is very, very difficult to compete at the same level.”
“My history says that I always arrived at my clubs in a difficult situation with problems. I always build.
“After my first season at Chelsea, when we won the title, we could have become dominant in England.
“We spoke with Lukaku and Van Dijk, and with those two important players we could have changed the situation.”
Would anything have changed?
Plenty of teams have spent a whole lot of money in the years since Guardiola took charge of City but not much of it has made a difference.
Only Liverpool have been able to stop them from winning the title since 2017 while also going all the way to the final day twice.
The recruitment on Merseyside has been exceptional and Van Dijk was obviously a key factor in turning Klopp’s side into an elite outfit.
Maybe if Chelsea got their hands on the Dutch defender instead he would have been transformative enough to keep them at the top.
We’ll never know for sure but it’s hard to see given the continued turbulence at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea have had eight managers in the time City and Liverpool have had one.
Van Dijk is a world-class defender but he has been helped by playing in a settled team and tactical system for years. Something Chelsea have never had.
Liverpool had to have their best-ever seasons after years of every decision going right to even keep up with City. Would two signings really have changed things for Chelsea that much?
