Antonio Conte will ask his board to invest in Chelsea's squad for next season as he admits that his squad isn't yet fully equipped to deal with the intense schedule of European competition.
Chelsea qualified for the Uefa Champions League last weekend after beating Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park and they now have the sights set on securing a league and FA Cup double.
Premier League rival managers have said that Chelsea's lack of European football has been an advantage to them on the road to European success but Conte believes that too much has been made of Spurs' extra eight games across Uefa competitions.
"Don't forget that Tottenham dropped at the first group stage, and then dropped in the first game in the Europa League," Conte told a news conference at Cobham Training Ground. "If you consider our games and their games, there is a difference of what, eight games?
"But if you consider the squads, the numbers in each squad, you can see the difference: one team prepared to play the Champions League with 25 or 26 players, and another who prepared to play the league, the FA Cup and the League Cup."
Conte was then asked about whether he will need more players to compete on all fronts, like Spurs, and he answered “yes, for sure.” Chelsea have space to register five more players in their squad for a European campaign without selling any of their stars.
Chelsea have confirmed that their captain John Terry will depart and Diego Costa is strongly rumoured to be joining him. Conte was keen to highlight that he has sold several players as he used a core group of 14 or so in the battle for glory.
"I think every team risks losing big players," Conte continued. "I understand, but this is a process. I think no one person thought this season that Chelsea could fight to win the title and could fight to be in the final of the FA Cup.
"For sure, we are in a moment of transition. We are losing a lot of top players who have written the story, the history, of this club. This season we lost [Branislav] Ivanovic, we lost [John Obi] Mikel and, next season, we'll have lost John (Terry): three players.
"Don't forget Oscar, who went in the transfer market when we sold him. Now it's very difficult to face this problem [Costa leaving] and I don't want to think about this problem. I want to focus on the present and be prepared to face every situation and find the right solution.”
