Antonio Conte is convinced he can restore Chelsea to the Champions League at the first time of asking but already faces an uphill task to persuade Diego Costa to remain at Stamford Bridge with the Spain international intent on returning to La Liga.

The manager of Italy has signed a three-year contract worth £5 million (€6.2m) a season, with a £5 million bonus should he steer Chelsea to their second European Cup. He will take up the reins once Italy’s participation at Euro 2016 has concluded and will inherit a team who have had a traumatic season and are set to miss out on European competition of any kind for the first time in Roman Abramovich’s 13-year reign.

Conte has already made clear to the Chelsea hierarchy his belief he can return the team to the Champions League, though his hopes of convincing Costa to remain appear slim.

The striker, who is serving his second three-game suspension of the campaign, has grown weary at the regular scrutiny of his on-field discipline in English football and has been encouraged by news that Atlético Madrid are keen to bring him back to the Vicente Calderón Stadium this summer.

Priority

The striker’s agent, Jorge Mendes, is also understood to have sounded out Paris Saint-Germain over a move for his client. Yet a return to Spain remains Costa’s priority and it will be an early test of Conte’s powers of persuasion as to whether the forward stays.

Conte, who has signed a deal through to 2019, has already supplied his new employers with a list of summer transfer targets.

Chelsea, who confirmed Conte's appointment the day before his alleged failure to report a match-fixing scandal will be heard at a court in Cremona, have given him the go-ahead to bring his long-term assistants Angelo Alessio and Massimo Carrera with him to Stamford Bridge. Guardian Service