Carlos Carvalhal takes on Antonio Conte‘s Chelsea insisting he has the hardest job in the Premier League at Swansea.
Conte caused a stir earlier this month when he claimed Burnley boss Sean Dyche has an easier job compared to managers competing at the top end of the table and backed by bigger transfer budgets.
But Carvalhal believes managers at the top clubs have it easy compared to the role he inherited at Swansea at the end of 2017.
“Of all the jobs in the Premier League, I think ours is the hardest of all of them,” Carvalhal said ahead of fifth-placed Chelsea’s visit to the Liberty Stadium.
“Why? Because when we arrived we were five points adrift (of 17th place), no-one else was playing in this condition in this competition.
“I did not prepare the team at the start to win the title or to go to Europe. I accepted the challenge midway through the season when we were bottom, in the relegation zone. There is no harder situation in the competition, absolutely sure.”
Conte has regularly complained about the lack of transfer funds at Chelsea, despite spending around Ā£320 million in his 21 months at Stamford Bridge.
Alfie Mawson (l), Tammy Abraham and Swansea are in a relegation battle.
Chelsea have recouped about Ā£260m of that outlay, making for a net spend of Ā£60m, and Carvalhal says working with limited financial resources makes management more difficult.
“I can’t talk about another (manager),” the Portuguese replied when asked about last season’s title winners.
“But so far, I never was at a club that said to me, ‘You have this money, let’s try to bring players to achieve what you want’.
“So far, I didn’t work with this kind of challenge and it made things more difficult in the past.
“But I’m here and I believe, in the future, I will have this kind of challenge to try to have a budget to buy players. So far, I managed with peanuts. Just peanuts. But I’m happy, I’m not complaining.”
Swansea are one place above the relegation zone and hold a four-point advantage over Southampton and Stoke – the two clubs directly below them – heading into the weekend.
Carvalhal’s side have not won since a 4-1 home victory over West Ham on March 3, but the struggles of others have nonetheless seen them increase the gap on the bottom three in that time by a point.
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And with three of their last four games at the Liberty Stadium, including final-week visits from Southampton and Stoke, Carvalhal is upbeat about Swansea’s survival prospects.
“If we play the same way away as we do at home, we would be Europa League, minimum,” he said.
“The instinct of the players away from home is to protect the goal, even if their manager has told them to attack. But at home we are in a good way, we are strong and that is a positive.”
