According to the London Evening Standard Mauricio Pochettino has aimed a thinly veiled dig at Antonio Conte as his Chelsea side are now beginning to realise the difficulty of balancing European football and a Premier League title challenge.
Blues manager Antonio Conte this week criticised the Premier League of having a lack of respect for English sides in Europe, as Chelsea made a 5,000 mile round trip to Azerbaijan before heading to Liverpool 72 hours later.
It adds that having finished 10th in 2015-16, Conte had no European football to balance his side against as they won the title last year, and now Mauricio says the Italian is beginning to feel the strain.
“Of course, now he’s feeling the same as we felt last season when you are a contender and competing in Europe – the Champions League and Europa League are the same, always it’s complicated,” the Argentine said.
“I think if you take the Europa League like Arsenal when you’re always rotating the team and playing with a different team in the Premier League then maybe you can arrive fresh and be a contender in the Premier League.
“If you want to win the Europa League and the Premier League or the Champions League and the Premier League, you need to be right how you rotate and manage your squad.”
If Pochettino couldn’t endear us to him even more
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