Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas admits he was worried for his Blues career under Antonio Conte

AFP/Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj4 December 2017

Cesc Fabregas has revealed he was concerned about his future at Chelsea last season, but admitted that he and coach Antonio Conte now share a "fantastic" relationship.

By this point last season, Fabregas had made just three starts in all competitions for Chelsea but he has since gone on to become a key component in Conte's team this term - having started 18 games already for the champions.

Such is his importance to Chelsea that Conte has utilised Fabregas in both his 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 tactical systems this season.

And the midfielder has revealed that he had to work hard in training and in his limited minutes on the pitch to win Conte's trust.

"I would be lying if I say that I wasn't worried," he told reporters at Stamford Bridge on Monday. "Maybe worried is not the right word.

"I wasn't playing, I wasn't really part of his initial plans and at that point you can do two things. You can just give up and accept you are not going to be part of the team or the club in the future.

"The other is what I did, put your head down and be humble, show him that he's wrong, that he can trust you, that you can play in this time. Every time I had an opportunity I gave my all."

When then asked about his relationship with Conte, Fabregas replied: "My relationship with the manager is fantastic. He trusts me. He knows exactly what I can give to the team.

"I'm very happy. I am where I want to be. That's all down to belief, trust and hard work."

He wears a magic hat | Fabregas has become a key player after a stuttering start under Conte
AFP/Getty Images

Fabregas' current contract at Chelsea runs out in the summer of 2019, with the Spaniard telling Standard Sport recently that he wants to sign a new deal and stay on at the club.

Despite having turned 30 earlier this year, Fabregas says he feels fitter than ever before and hopes to earn a new contract at Chelsea.

He added: "You need to adapt to the methods and philosophy of training for the manager to be fit and always ready to work very hard in training is vital.

"Physically I feel, I will not say better than ever, because it's been many years... recently in the last few years I feel the fittest.

"I had to adapt myself especially defensively to a new role. It's not the biggest of my strengths, but I still have to adapt. At the beginning of last season the boss would never have trusted me in a 3-4-3 - he does now.

"I'm 30, but you never stop learning in football. You can be 31, 32, 33 and always improve. I'm learning a lot under him. I'm very proud of that. Hopefully it's not the end and there's much more to come."

Have your say

Conte was also asked about Fabregas and how he won his trust, to which the Italian replied: "Cesc at the start of last season didn’t play a lot.

"But I was very happy because through the work he tried to change my mind and it happened. This season he has continued to work very hard, showed me great commitment and behaviour and the coach has to make the best decision.

"He is still young for sure. When you are 30 years old you have at least five more years to play football at this level you must have great desire and great will to play at this level. Because it is not simple, there is a lot of competition with other players but Cesc has great ambition.

"He’s a winner in his mind, in his mentality, for this reason he is very strong."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in