Eurosport reports that incoming Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has pledged his full focus and attention to Italy's upcoming Euro 2016 campaign despite an almost immediate move to Chelsea after the international tournament concludes in July.
He's set to join Chelsea after a dismal title defense that stabilized under the successful interim shift of Guus Hiddink.
Despite a well-needed rebuild in the summer, Conte said, "Anyone who knows me knows that I work on things one at a time, and I try to deal with them in the best way. The Euros is the end of a two-year journey. I want to tackle this tournament in the best way, knowing the difficulties which we didn't expect to face."
Conte will be hoping that he can take the 2012 runners-up one step further, claiming Italy's second European Championship having picked up the trophy in 1968.
"I always talk about work, we'll try to work with our head down and try to do something great," continued Conte, who managed to three successive Serie A titles from 2012 to 2014 with Juventus.
Italy will be preparing for the upcoming Euro's with friendly fixtures against Scotland and Finland, before enduring testing group stage fixtures in the tournament.
They open their campaign in Lyon against a Belgium side tipped to do very well on June 13. Conte's Italy also take on the Republic of Ireland and Sweden in a tough Group E in which any of the contenders qualify.
Antonio Conte would slightly benefit personally from Italy dropping out at the Group stage, and indeed this might be something Chelsea fans are hoping for, as the Euro's eat well into the summer transfer window.