When Conte was fine-tuning the building of the Chelsea team that would eventually win the Premier League title, Fabregas had started only four matches.
Tonight, as Chelsea prepare to take on Atletico Madrid in a bid to win Group C having already qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League, the Spanish World Cup-winning midfielder has made 18 starts in all competitions, and is now a key part of Conte’s team.
The former Arsenal and Barcelona star is now 30 and at the end of this season will have only one year left on his contract but Fabregas insisted he still feels young and is ready to commit his future to the club.
The contrast through to a year ago is stark.
“I would be lying if I say that I wasn’t worried,” said Fabregas. “I wasn’t playing, I wasn’t part of the manager’s initial plans, and at that point you can do two things.
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“You can just give up and accept you are not going to be part of the team. The other is what I did, put your head down and be humble, show him he’s wrong, that he can trust you, that you can play. Every time I had an opportunity I gave my all.
“Now my relationship with the manager is fantastic. He trusts me. He knows exactly what I can give to the team. I’m very happy. I am where I want to be. That’s all down to belief, trust and hard work.
“You need to adapt to the methods and philosophy of the manager. I had to adapt myself especially defensively to a new role. It’s not the biggest of my strengths, but I have to adapt. At the beginning of last season the boss would never have trusted me in a 3-4-3 formation – he does now.”
As for a new contract, with Chelsea in recent years giving players aged 30 and over only one-year deals, Fabregas said: “I’m only 30 – what is 30? Nothing. I’m young. In my position, you can go for many more years.
“It’s true at the end of the year I have a year left but I’m where I want to be. When the moment comes to talk, I’ll be here, ready for it.”
Conte said: “Cesc at the start of last season didn’t play a lot.
“But I was happy because through his work he tried to change my mind and it happened. In the second part of last season he started to play with regularity.
“In the first part I played almost every game with N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic, but in the second Cesc played a lot of games. He was very important for us winning the title. This season he has continued to work very hard, showed me great commitment and behaviour. I tried to make the best decision.
“Cesc is still young. When you are 30 you have at least five more years to play at this level. You must have great desire and great will. But Cesc has great ambition. He’s a winner in his mind, in his mentality. So he is very strong.”
Conte’s team need to win to take first place make their draw for the last 16 possibly easier but Atletico need to win and then hope that somehow Roma fail to beat group minnows Qarabag in the other game in the group tonight – otherwise it is the Europa League for Diego Simeone’s side.
Simeone said: “We cannot think about what is happening in Rome. We just have to be thinking about ourselves. We need to take the game to where we can hurt Chelsea. It’s a personal challenge.”