Antonio Conte’s contractual demands have played a key role in Real Madrid cooling their interest in the former Chelsea manager, it has been claimed.
After days of speculation, Real Madrid finally axed Julen Lopetegui as their coach following their humiliating 5-1 defeat to eternal rivals Barcelona at the weekend.
Conte has been heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid and has been claimed to be arranging the final breaking of his relationship with Chelsea, where he is still on the payroll, to take the Bernabeu job.
The European champions have been considering appointing Conte, but Real Madrid have for now promoted their reserve team coach Santiago Solari.
And according to Spanish daily AS, the dressing room opinion of Conte and the Italian’s contractual demands were something Real Madrid took into consideration before looking the other way.
Conte’s high handed style of management is claimed to be something the senior players at Real Madrid were not keen to experience following Lopetegui’s failures.
The former Chelsea manager’s reputation as a hard taskmaster has gone against him and Real Madrid are also not prepared to adhere to his contractual demands.
Conte wanted a two-and-a-half year contract, but Real Madrid were only ready to offer him an 18-month deal.
