Soccer

Antonio Conte keen to sample football at Christmas

  UP FOR IT: Blues manager Antonio Conte is eagerly anticiapting the challenge of keeping Chelsea ahead of the pack over the festive period
  UP FOR IT: Blues manager Antonio Conte is eagerly anticiapting the challenge of keeping Chelsea ahead of the pack over the festive period   UP FOR IT: Blues manager Antonio Conte is eagerly anticiapting the challenge of keeping Chelsea ahead of the pack over the festive period

CHELSEA head coach Antonio Conte hopes to enjoy his first experience of festive football – after avoiding going shopping for Christmas presents.

The Blues enter the Christmas and New Year programme with a six-point lead and on an 11-match Premier League winning streak.

Conte’s side play at home to Bournemouth on St Stephen’s Day and Stoke on New Year’s Eve and at Tottenham on January 4.

And the former Juventus midfielder and boss and Italy head coach is looking forward to a time many managers, both native and foreign, have lamented.

“This is the first experience for me and my family, to work, to play football (at this time of year),” Conte said. “It can be, and I hope it will be, a fantastic experience.”

Asked whether English football should have a winter break, Conte added: “It’s very difficult for me to say if it’s positive or negative to play during the Christmas period.

“But for me, it’s my first experience and I’m very happy to have this experience. “I lived always this experience when I stayed in Italy. I have this situation in England, and I heard a lot of coaches are disappointed, saying you should stop and have a winter break.

“Above all with the national team. (Former England boss Fabio) Capello always said the lack of a winter break penalised the national team.

“The atmosphere we find in this period is very difficult to find in another period. It’s fantastic.”

Conte will be joined for Christmas by his wife and daughter for a family get-together, but he will carry on working, rather than go on holiday to Lecce, Dubai or stay at home in Turin, and leave gift shopping to his wife.

“It’s very strange for us,” he added.

“In this period, we’re used to going on holiday for a week.

“But it’s important for me, at Christmas, to stay with my family.

“You have to celebrate Christmas with the family. It’s not important where you stay, but it’s important to stay together with your family.

“I don’t like to buy gifts. I don’t like this. My wife does this. She is a fantastic person.

“I don’t like going to the shops. My wife spends the right money, not a lot of money.”

Chelsea, meanwhile, have announced they have agreed terms with Shanghai SIPG for the permanent transfer of midfielder Oscar.

The 25-year-old will join the Chinese Super League side at the beginning of the January transfer window after four-and-a-half years with the Blues.

During that time the Brazil international has won the Premier League, Europa League and League Cup but, more recently, he has found his chances limited under new boss Antonio Conte.

A fee has not been announced by the Premier League side but the deal is understood to be around £52million, with Oscar reportedly earning £400,000 a week.

A statement on Chelsea’s official website read: “We thank Oscar for his wonderful service and wish him the very best of luck for the future.”

Oscar will join former Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas at Shanghai SIPG and is the latest big name to move to China.

Ex-Blues striker Demba Ba is at Shanghai Shenhua while Graziano Pelle swapped Southampton for Shandong Luneng in July for a reported £13m.

Ramires, Gervinho, Hulk and Ezequiel Lavezzi have also been tempted to head to the Far East and more could follow in January.

Chelsea manager Conte has recently spoken of the “danger” posed by the big-spending Chinese Super League sides, who now boast the financial clout to outmuscle Premier League rivals.

Speaking last week, before the Oscar deal was officially announced, he said: “The Chinese market is a danger for all teams in the world; not only for Chelsea but all teams in the world.”