Antonio Conte is only likely to join Arsenal or another Premier League team if he has time to reshape the first-team squad, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Italian journalist claims there has been “no contact” between the Gunners and the former Chelsea head coach so far, and he says Conte may not agree to move to London before the end of the season:
“There is no contact with Arsenal today. He just signed with Sky Italy, to be their man for the Champions League studio with Sky Italy. So he’s prepared to have this new role for this season. Maybe next summer Conte will be back at the top level, but right now, no contact with Arsenal.”
“He also wants to have a big impact on a team in England, we know what happened with Chelsea, so he wants to have a big impact with deciding new signings and this type of thing, so having Antonio Conte in October or November is something particularly difficult.”
Conte has pretty specific demands when it comes to any managerial role. He likes to have his own way over transfers, which he could get at Arsenal, with current boss Mikel Arteta also having a big say on who is signed.
However, unlike Arteta who looks to be trying to build a squad for the long term, Conte would press for additions to the team that would bring instant success to the club. It would, therefore, take the Gunners to do a 180-degree about-turn on their current transfer policy.
