For a self-proclaimed winner, it is a return to the place he last won. Two seasons in the dugout at San Siro brought Inter Milan’s first Scudetto for 11 years. It is the sort of achievement that burnished Antonio Conte’s image of himself. He has five league titles in his last seven full seasons in club football. Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti, to name but three, cannot claim as much.
If they are placed on a higher managerial plane, deemed among the real elite, it is because of the Champions League. Facing AC Milan takes Conte back, and not merely because he is a former Juventus and Inter manager. His last Champions League final was against Milan: 20 years ago, when he was a Juventus substitute and they lost on penalties at Old Trafford. It was also an all-Serie A final, something which feels implausible now, when Milan are outbid by Bournemouth for players, when Conte’s stuttering Tottenham are arguably favourites in a two-legged tie against the reigning Italian champions.
