Russia 2018: World Cup will decide my Chelsea future ―Willian

Willian’s relationship with Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has taken yet another twist.

Things between the pair turned rather frosty after the Brazil international stormed down the tunnel during his side’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Southampton in April and then found himself out of the starting XI more often that not towards the end of last season.

Fast forward a few weeks and the winger’s action following the Blues’ win over Manchester United spoke volumes.

Clearly unhappy about his current situation at Stamford Bridge, Willian took to Instagram added an photo to his story of the team celebrating their triumph with three trophy emojis that obscured Conte.

In addition, the Brazilian hasn’t been shy about his feelings toward the Italian and prior to the game at Wembley told ESPN Brasil: “Do you really want me to tell you [about our relationship]? Let’s save it for one next interview.”

Willian insisted that he did respect Conte’s decisions during the season despite often being left out of the team for some crucial matches.

“Sometimes to stay on the bench is difficult but I respect the decision of the manager,” Willian told reporters while on international duty with Brazil.

“I don’t have anything more to say about my club because now I want to have focus here on the national team and the World Cup.”

Although, now it would appear that was simply false hope as Wilian gave a blunt response when asked by a journalist about Conte after helping Brazil reach the World Cup quarter-final with victory over Mexico on Monday afternoon.

“How important was Conte for you? I don’t want to say nothing about him,” he said, as reported by Goal.

It seems highly unlikely that the pair will be at the same club next season.

Conte is expected to be replaced by Maurizio Sarri at some point this summer, while Willian has been linked with a move to Manchester United as well as a £50m switch to Barcelona.