Chelsea winger Willian has admitted his relationship with former manager Antonio Conte was pretty non-existent.
The Italian was dismissed from his position and replaced by Maurizio Sarri earlier in the summer and Willian explained he has heard good things about the new boss and has 'high expectations'.
"I hope he [Sarri] is not like Conte," Willian told ESPN, before quickly adding "No, I'm kidding!"
"For me, Conte was a manager very difficult to work with. His philosophy, his way of dealing with things is very complicated. There were a few games... Sometimes we just don't understand. You're playing very well, then you get substituted. I do not understand. There were two times when I got substituted and I went straight to the locker room. It was hard to work with him."
Willian spent two years under Conte and won the Premier League and FA Cup, but started fewer games than he had done under Jose Mourinho, who he called the 'best manager'. Pressed on why the 29-year-old and Conte didn't get on, Willian couldn't put his finger on it. "I don't know, sometimes the manager doesn't like you," he said.
The lack of relationship between player and manager seemed to be confirmed by Willian after Chelsea beat Manchester United in the 2018 FA Cup final when he obscured Conte's face in a celebratory team photo shared on social media. "My daughter was playing with my cell phone and she ended up putting those emojis over Conte," he explained when asked about the much talked about post.
"For me, since the beginning, since he arrived, I knew it would be hard. After the final ... I got a plane right after the game to come to Brazil. When I got here, early in the morning, I was posting some champion pictures ... Well, I was a bit too tired and ended up posting them like that."
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