Chelsea coach Antonio Conte has revealed that his greatest achievement as a coach is his Serie A win with Juventus.
The Italian took the then un-fancied team and won the title without losing any game in his debut season. The Turin-based side placed seventh the season but Conte was able to start a string of title wins at the club.
“The first Scudetto with Juventus as a coach was the greatest achievement of my career, the greatest joy. We won that year in an incredibly difficult situation, where we started out from seventh place and were not considered contenders at all. We created a remarkable alchemy and there was this unconditional faith. If I had said: ‘Let’s all throw ourselves off a building’ – we would’ve done it. There was such belief and unity between us,” the Blues manager disclosed.
He further revealed that he took up the job with the hope of making the Champions League in the first season, and that the club’s president Andrea Agnelli believed in him. He said that many players had left as they had finished poorly in two years. He said the AC Milan squad with abundant stars like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gennaro Gattuso, Alessandro Nesta, Robinho should have won that Serie A title.
“I think that was to our advantage, as when you are clearly stronger, you have to win and the pressure is all on you. We won because we had more hunger, more determination, more everything,” Conte added. The transfer strategy of getting Andrea Pirlo who was a free agent, a relatively unknown Arturo Vidal and Stephan Lichtsteiner worked for Juve. Conte praised the efforts of Alessandro Del Piero and Gigianlugi Buffon, adding that they shared in his joy and pain during his stay at the club.
