Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso has indicated that Antonio Conte’s second season at Stamford Bridge became complicated once the club lost several big players in the transfer window.
Conte won the league title at a canter in his first season at Chelsea, but the Italian’s mood deteriorated after the start of the 2017/18 season due to failures in the market.
The Italian personally offloaded Diego Costa, but Chelsea were beaten to Romelu Lukaku’s signing by Manchester United and the decision to sell Nemanja Matic was also not believed to be his.
The Serbian’s replacement at Chelsea, Tiemoue Bakayoko, failed miserably and their then record signing Alvaro Morata is still struggling to make his mark at the club.
Alonso admits that various factors led to a difficult year for Conte and Chelsea last year, which eventually led to the Italian’s dismissal in the summer.
Speaking about Conte’s departure, the Spaniard told Italian daily Gazzetta dello Sport: “His second year was complicated.
“We had lost big players and winning twice in a row in England is difficult.”
Chelsea have made a brilliant start to the new season under new manager Maurizio Sarri and are currently second in the league table.
