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Antonio Conte delivers exit warning and challenges Chelsea board to showdown meeting

ANTONIO CONTE has insisted that he and the Chelsea board need to settle their differences if he is to stay at Stamford Bridge but warned that he will have plenty of options if he leaves.

The Italian will still have 12 months left on his £9million a year contract at the end of this season although it is widely believed that he will leave then after a long running row with the board over transfers.

Chelsea have drawn up a list of candidates to replace Conte in the summer should that happen, with former Barcelona coach Luis Enrique at the top.

But Conte has always publicly insisted that he will see out his Chelsea contract and he gave a timely reminder of how good a coach he is on Tuesday night as he set his team up perfectly to combat Barca in their last-16 first leg Champions league tie.

Chelsea played well in the 1-1 draw and only a late defensive error denied them a win to take to the Nou Camp in three weeks time.

Conte said: “My intention is to remain here but if something were to change, there would be several different scenarios opening up.

“In 14 years, Chelsea have changed coach 10 times, so they do have a tendency to chop and change here.

“The media also plays on this habit the moment there are negative results. They were already writing headlines about my dismissal after the opening game against Burnley.

“It’s no problem for me, in fact I really like pressure. I just hope it doesn’t affect the players.

“I said very clearly, I have a contract to 2019. I intend to respect it. After that, anything can happen in football.

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'I am happy at Chelsea but to move forward with the marriage everyone needs to be in agreement. My intention is to continue.

“In our line of work, we always have a bag packed. My intention is to remain here but if something were to change, there would be several different scenarios opening up.”

The Italian Football Federation have already confirmed they would like to take Conte back as their coach but Paris St Germain, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid are all monitoring Conte’s situation at Stamford Bridge.

Source: www.express.co.uk

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