Antonio Conte overcame doubts to sign new Chelsea deal after promise of several more new arrivals
Antonio Conte has confirmed he sought assurances over Chelsea's ambition before signing a new two-year contract and is still urging them to make many more signings.
Conte admits he did have a few private doubts about staying on after an exhausting first campaign in charge, even though he won the title.
The Italian agreed a new salary worth £9.5m-a-year earlier this week, but significantly did not extend beyond the two years remaining on his original deal.
As Standard Sport revealed, both camps are happy with this and plan to discuss another deal should all continue to go well.
But the former Juventus coach concedes that talking to the club over their transfer plans has been key to him putting pen to paper at Stamford Bridge.
When asked if he ever considered leaving, he said: "My decision was always to stay with Chelsea and continue this work. But you know very well that our job is not simple and anything can happen during our path and our career.
"I spoke with the club and we found the right view about the future of this club. For every manager it is important to explain your idea.
"It's very important that the club understand your idea and the club is ready also to work together, to try together and to be this solid foundation. I can want this, but if I'm alone it's very difficult to do this.
"We are a great club but are in a moment where we can't make a mistake because it's very dangerous.
"We don't have a lot of space to make mistakes. We need to improve and increase our squad and to be something important for the present but also for our future."
Conte spent his first year at Chelsea living apart from his wife and daughter, who remained in Italy although visited regularly.
They are now moving to the capital full-time and Conte says that was another factor in staying on.
He added: "It will be good news for them to come to England because to stay another season without my family would be very hard, very difficult.
"My daughter is at an age when it’s very important to see her grow, to stay every day with her. And also with my wife, because she would be jealous for this.
"We are seeing a different solution. If you compare last season, when I was alone and I decided to stay in London and to stay behind our hotel before the matches.
"My family is very important and them coming over will show my commitment to the club."
However, Conte remains anxious that Chelsea have not bought enough players this summer to remain competitive. Chelsea have spent £132m on Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger, while Willy Caballero arrived on a free transfer.
But Conte says that is not enough given the club have allowed so many more players to leave on a permanent basis - sales have raised £130m in revenue during the calendar year - or on loan.
The club have also seen a number of legends that were key to their success during the Roman Abramovich era - the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, Branislav Ivanovic and Mikel John Obi - move on in recent campaigns.
Conte complained his squad was the smallest among the top six clubs last term and is worried about a lack of numbers once again, especially with the Champions League to contend with on top of the three domestic cup competitions.
He continued: "If you remember when I spoke last season I told you: ‘Look, we are in a situation that we lost a lot of big players.’ A lot of big players that were fundamental at Chelsea.
"Now we are at one point where we need to rebuild again these fundamentals because you can see that we do not have many players.
"Now it’s very important to try to find the players with the right characteristic and also to buy young players to create this momentum for the present and also for the future, to create something for Chelsea.
"For sure we need to improve the quality and to improve our squad because next season will be very tough for us.
"We arrived at this moment after finishing last season where I utilised only 13 players regularly and we won the League and arrived at the final of the FA Cup.
"Chelsea is a great team and must try every season to fight until the end to win the competition.
"This season the target is the same but it won’t be easy because you can see Manchester City, Manchester United, the other teams as well are trying to reinforce themselves and I repeat we are changing a lot. More from necessity, not because I wanted to change."
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