Antonio Conte stepped up his war of words with Chelsea's board when he criticised the club's flawed transfer policy that has seen the reigning Premier League champions fall way behind Manchester City.

Chelsea are clinging on to fourth place as they travel to Watford on Monday, already 19 points behind City, having finished 15 points ahead of them last season.

And Conte has said that the biggest difference between the two mega-rich clubs was in their transfer activity, not just in the recent window but last summer, too.

Antonio Conte has taken another swipe at the Chelsea board regarding their transfer policy

While Pep Guardiola kept his best players and spent over £200m on a handful of top quality additions such as Bernard Silva, Ederson and Kyle Walker, Chelsea lost three top players – Diego Costa, John Terry and Nemanja Matic – and failed to replace them with world-class talent.

Although the Blues also spent over £200m, it was spread across seven signings and it can be argued that only Alvaro Morata is in the top bracket, and even he has struggled in recent weeks.

Danny Drinkwater, Tiemoue Bakayoko, Antonio Rudiger, Davide Zappacosta and the rest have failed to impress and the January window has told the same story, with the arrivals of Ross Barkley, Olivier Giroud and Emerson Palmeri failing to inspire Chelsea's fans – or their manager.

The Italian boss spent over £200m on new signings in the summer and added more in January

CHELSEA'S £200M SUMMER SPREE Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid, £70.6m) Tiemoue Bakayoko (Monaco, £40m) Antonio Rudiger (Roma, £31m) Davide Zappacosta (Torino, £25m) Ethan Ampadu (Exeter City, compensation to be agreed) Willy Caballero (Manchester City, free) Danny Drinkwater (Leicester, £30m) Advertisement

Conte has repeatedly distanced himself from the club's transfer policy, which have been overseen since the departure of Michael Emenalo last year by Marina Granovskaia, Roman Abramovich's former personal assistant and now a director of Chelsea.

And on Friday Conte openly criticised the situation when asked what Chelsea need to do in the long term, in order to catch up with City and the other clubs ahead of them in the table.

'We must be realistic and understand what our level is, struggling to fight for a Champions League place,' he said. 'We must be strong to accept this type of situation. Then, in the future, if there is the possibility, you have to try to buy only two or three players – not eight players. Don't forget, this summer we brought in eight players and spent a lot less than other teams who bought only two or three.'

Conte has had to adjust to life without the likes of John Terry and Nemanja Matic (pictured)

And he still believes Chelsea are short of the solid foundation needed to compete with City. 'We have to build something important. To do this, you must have 15 or 16 players. In the summer we changed eight players. That means you don't have a basis, a great foundation.

'We lost strong, experienced players in the last few years, so we must have patience to understand that, now, we have to appreciate the moment, be realistic, create a basis and then build something important to face big challenges with the other teams.'

Conte was asked if he was happy with Chelsea's business in January, which also saw Michy Batshuayi depart on loan to Borussia Dortmund, for whom he scored twice on his debut on Friday.

The Italian chose his words carefully when he said: 'As you know very well, because I repeated always the same concept over this period of the transfer market, I gave my opinion to the club and then the club tried to make the best decision.

'We lost strong, experienced players in the last few years, so we must have patience,' he said

'In this case, I said, in every case, I will be happy. Now I'm lucky because the transfer market has finished and, for this reason, our focus must be on the pitch to try and do our best.'

Barkley has had an inauspicious start to his Chelsea career, making his full league debut in last Wednesday's 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth. The former Everton midfielder had been out for six months with a hamstring injury, and both Giroud and Emerson Palmieri are also recovering from long-term injuries, making it difficult for them to start at Watford despite Morata's continued absence.

'We are starting to work with him (Giroud) and we have to check his physical condition. For sure, it won't be easy to see him in the starting 11 on Monday.'