Antonio Conte expects to see Romelu Lukaku back in the Premier League one day and insists the £97.5m flop still has time to become a hit at Chelsea.
The Blues shipped Belgium star Lukaku off to Inter Milan on loan this season, the club where he played his best football under Conte. But the Italian reckons he would have been more successful at Stamford Bridge if Chelsea had been more patient with him - and insists Lukaku isn't finished in the Premier League just yet.
Conte, whose Tottenham team take on Chelsea today, said: "For sure he has the potential to play in the Premier League. I remember very well when he started to play last season he played really well and you in the media said Lukaku is really strong. A lot of things can happen and the confidence drops.
"I know for sure he is a bit disappointed with his impact, because he wanted to have another impact in England. But he has time. Now it's right for him to play for an important club in Italy to try to get again confidence in himself. But we are talking about a really important, a really good striker. Romelu lived two years in Milan and he was the king. The fans showed him a lot of passion and I think he’s a guy who needs this. For this reason, I think he wanted to come back in Milan, but for sure, the signing was a good signing for Chelsea. There are players that need more time to make an impact."
Conte has also warned Chelsea they will be facing a different Tottenham this weekend. Spurs lost four times to their London rivals last season - including three times in two weeks to them during Conte's lowest spell at White Hart Lane in January. But the ambitious Italian, who has signed eight players this summer, insists his players have nothing to be embarrassed about. And he reckons this Tottenham team is ready to make a statement after turning things around and qualifying for the Champions League with a late push last season.
Conte said: "To feel embarrassed, I don't think so. You have to be embarrassed if you don't work. If you are lazy. If you don't give 100 per cent. For sure, I can assure you, that last season we tried to give everything in the three games that Tottenham played against Chelsea with me as a coach. Honesty, last season, it was the period when I was really frustrated because for me it was not normal to lose three games in a row in only two weeks, against the same team.
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"My players tried to give everything but for injuries and a lot of situations, we had only been working together for two months, it was very difficult to reach a good result against Chelsea. Now on Sunday the situation is different. We have worked for eight months together. We improved the team because we finished in the top four. To do that wasn't easy but we showed we deserved it. We play Champions League. The belief now is different. We don't have the injuries we did last season.
"But for sure we are going to play against a top team. We want to try to show that we are going in the right way to face this type of team with ambition - not only to fight. With ambition. To make the right evaluation about our improvement, this game will be very imp with us. Win lose or draw, we must make the right evaluation, to understand the performance, the way we played, to feel our improvement for the future."
Conte will be without new signing Clement Lenglet, who has an abductor injury, and Oliver Skipp is still a few weeks away from a return. But after Spurs pummelled Southampton 4-1 in their Premier League opener, they are in better shape than last season to try and claim only a second win at the Bridge since 1992. Conte said: "We are talking about 30 years! It is a long time. But we want to try. Compared to last season we improved our squad. But we needed to do this. Last season we finished with only 13 players. It was really normal to do this. Otherwise we'd be foolish not to do this and to face four competitions. For sure we are better than last season because we have a squad with a number of players more reliable than last season. We improved the quality. When you play every three days you need to make rotations and when you don't drop the quality every time you rotate, you have more chances to be successful."
