Milan (AFP)

Antonio Conte at Inter Milan, here we go: at the end of a sporting successful season but punctuated by recurring tensions with its leaders, the star coach with a volcanic character, given on the start, finally remains with the Nerazzurri.

All you had to do was sit down at a table. Tuesday, at the end of a "constructive meeting focused on continuity and strategy", the management of Inter and his coach agreed to continue the adventure.

"The two sides have laid the groundwork to continue working together," said Inter, second last season in Italy. A decision that avoids some financial gymnastics on the separation, the former Italian coach, under contract until 2022, receiving an extraordinary salary in Italy, estimated at some 11 million euros per season.

The Milan club therefore do not imitate Juventus, who passed them by a small point at the top of the Serie A standings but changed coaches by appointing Andrea Pirlo in place of Maurizio Sarri.

It's a turnaround. Because Antonio Conte, 51, warned last Friday, after the Europa League final lost to Sevilla (2-3), that he would refuse to live "another year like that". "If we can improve things, we will do it, otherwise we will see," he added.

- "With or without me" -

Appeared bitter, he seemed to have made his decision, evoking "the future of Inter with or without" him, at the end of a successful season but speckled with repeated quarrels with its leaders.

At the beginning of August, after the final league match in Bergamo, the former Chelsea and Juve coach, known for his outspokenness and his bloodthirsty attacks, attacked his leaders head-on: he accused them of not having "never protected" neither him nor the players, when they were criticized and received "shit packages".

While promising, annoyed, "discussions with the president, but he is in China".

During the season, he had already openly criticized certain choices of his leaders on recruitment, especially in early November after a cruel defeat in Dortmund (2-3), which plagued his career in the Champions League.

The successful course in C3 this summer and the return to Europe of young Chinese president Steven Zhang (28) to attend the last two European matches in Germany were undoubtedly the first step towards general appeasement. Despite the lost final, the president even praised Conte's "good work" and described the season's results as "very positive".

The managing director Giuseppe Marotta, whose relations with Conte are far from being in good shape according to the Italian press, had also assured a week ago (August 17) that "everything was forgotten" from the burning statements of the coach .

Despite the dissensions, Conte managed to build a competitive team with a newfound soul at the end of the season, combining power (Romelo Lukaku - Lautaro Martinez in attack), youth (Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolò Barella) and experience ( Diego Godin, Samir Handanovic, Ashley Young). A workforce on which he can continue to build.

© 2020 AFP