Antonio Conte has declared he will never stop speaking his mind - even if it costs him his job at Chelsea.

At the end of a week in which the patience of the club’s board was pushed to new extremes by Conte’s public complaints about player recruitment, the Italian revealed he would rather quit management altogether than become what he called a “fake”.

Amid claims his relationship with Roman Abramovich’s right-hand woman and chief transfer negotiator, Marina Granovskaia, had broken down almost entirely and that former Barcelona boss Luis Enrique was being lined up to replace him, Conte said: “For sure, I’m not a diplomatic man. I think that you can see this.

“At the same time, I think that I’m very honest; I’m very honest.