Antonio Conte bemoans that he has little influence over transfers at Chelsea

Antonio Conte has given his strongest indication yet that he has little influence over transfers at Chelsea. Following the club’s 2-1 defeat against Arsenal in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, Conte again outlined his frustration at the lack of depth in his squad, and appeared to shrug off responsibility for the club’s recruitment policy.

“From the summer, the club decides every single player that comes here,” Conte said. “Sometimes I can have an impact on this, sometimes you can’t have an impact. My first task is to do my job, to be a coach, to try to improve my players. For sure, I don’t have a big impact on the transfer market.”

Conte has made little secret of the fact that he wants to bring in a tall, physical striker during the January transfer window. Having missed out on Romelu Lukaku during the summer, Chelsea have now been linked with Edin Dzeko at Roma.

But Conte’s lack of forward options was underlined by the fact that with Alvaro Morata injured, he decided to play Eden Hazard up front, with a half-fit Ross Barkley alongside him after a first-half injury to Willian.

“The situation is always [still] the same from this summer,” he said. “I repeat: I’m very happy to work with my players. This situation is from this summer, not now. My task is to give everything for this club. In the transfer market, the club has to take the best decision for the team.”

It was hard to read Conte’s comments in any other sense than as a direct challenge to owner Roman Abramovich and director Marina Granovskaia to loosen their purse-strings with just a week of the transfer window remaining. There were numerous references to the “maximum” effort his players were putting in, and his struggles to rotate the squad and remain competitive.

“When the squad is not big, you have to play with always the same players,” he said. “This season, I made a lot of rotations. You have to know this. I am crazy if I put the same players in every competitions. But it’s not simple. And I don’t sleep for [because of] this.”

The injury to Willian, which Conte believes is not serious after having spoken to the player, will place more pressure on his attacking resources. Barkley, a £15 million signing from Everton, looked distinctly off the pace during his first senior game for eight months. “I was a bit forced to play Barkley,” Conte admitted. “He is a very good player, but at the same time he needs a bit of time to understand our football.”