Champions League will keep Conte at Chelsea, says Lippi

Antonio Conte will stay as Chelsea manager amid
links to Inter because the challenge of taking them
back into the Champions League is too good to
resist, according to Marcello Lippi.
Lippi, who like Conte formerly managed Juventus
and Italy, does not believe the prospect of taking
the Inter job would appeal to the Stamford Bridge
boss at this early stage of his career in England.
Despite the 47-year-old's continued denials,
speculation still links him with a move to San Siro,
while Diego Simeone is another rumoured
candidate to replace Stefano Pioli as the Serie A
club's Chinese owners Suning target a big name.
But Lippi, who coached Conte at Juve in his
playing days, is not buying reports that that he
could be tempted to leave Chelsea, even with a
five-year contract worth £50million reportedly on
the table from Inter.
Chelsea, winners of Europe's elite club competition
in 2012, missed out on a place this time around
after last season's mid-table finish, but Conte has
set them on course for a return as the Blues sit top
of the Premier League.
"We are talking about him because he is one of the
best in the world, but he seems happy in London to
me," Lippi told Mediaset Premium.
"He wants to take the Blues into the Champions
League next year, so I don't think he will change
bench."
Lippi feels the takeovers of Inter and city rivals AC
Milan over the past year were steps that had to be
taken to make the two clubs competitive again.
"These are two handovers which represent love for
the team by Massimo Moratti and Silvio
Berlusconi," added the China boss.
"These are clubs which can no longer be managed
by families, it takes big entrepreneurial groups and
currently those are Arabic, Chinese and Russian."