Italy manager Giampiero Ventura has a sly dig at Chelsea boss Antonio Conte for leaving ageing squad behind
Antonio Conte led Italy to the quarter finals of Euro 2016 losing to Germany on penalties before joining Chelsea in the summer
GIAMPIERO VENTURA was not impressed with the squad Antonio Conte left behind when he left the Italian national team to join Chelsea.
Ventura was annoyed at the age of the team when he took over and has since set about bringing in younger players to build on Italy's Euro 2016 performance.
As reported by Football Italia Ventura dug out his predecessor saying: ''The European Championship left us with one of the oldest squads in the last 150 years.''
The Italy manager feels Conte could have done more to nurture the upcoming talent but it seems Conte was solely focused on the NOW and was confident of causing an upset and winning the Euro's.
Its all change with the national side now as its very much out with the old and in with the new to keep up to pace with other top nations such as Germany and Spain.
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Ventura said: ''The road to change from the recent past has been accelerated. I picked an enlarged squad, now I want to start laying the foundations and see what happens.''
''Fate has it that there’s now the opportunity of accelerating that process. It’s a historic moment, not exceptional in terms of quality but because so many youngsters are blossoming.''
Perhaps Conte felt going in to the tournament that he wouldn't be there for the long term and wanted give himself and the players he had available the best opportunity of winning an international tournament.
At Chelsea Conte has the opportunity of being in a club with a high turner of youth products where he can then blood them in to the first team.
Time will tell if Conte enjoys a youth project but current form suggests that the passionate manager will leave Chelsea in a lot better position than he did the Italy squad.