Conte is currently without a managerial job after leaving Napoli at the end of the 2025/26 season, a year in which they were unable to follow up their Supercoppa Italiana glory with anything better than a second-placed finish behind runaway winners Inter Milan.
The 57-year-old told New York Times publication The Athletic of his ambitions to return to the Premier League a decade after steering Chelsea to league glory in 2016/17, which remains their most recent Premier League title.
Conte, who spoke glowingly of Arsenal's Mikel Arteta and PSG's Luis Enrique in particular, says he's drawn in particular to a return to England because of the enormous spending power of even the league's midtable clubs, saying that Premier League sides are "using bazookas, while everywhere else they’re still using a pistol".
The uncontracted four-time Serie A winner with Juventus and Napoli had already been linked to the Manchester United job after Carrick's poor start to 2026/27, during which they exited the EFL Cup at the hands of Brighton and won just one of their first five Premier League matches, opening up an expansive ten-point deficit to unbeaten league leaders Manchester City.
Conte boasts an impressive win rate of more than 60% in charge of English clubs Chelsea and Tottenham, winning two trophies with the Blues and leaving the latter by mutual consent when they were fourth in the Premier League standings in 2022/23.
Whilst Conte has historically been hesitant to take mid-season roles, his 500-day stint at Tottenham began in early November of 2021 after Nuno Espirito Santo was sacked 17 games into his contract.
Despite clarifying he's not in an urgent rush to return to the office, Conte did everything but quash the speculation he's after Carrick's job when saying he'd like to rescue a struggling team "that have somewhat lost sight of their history".
"I’d like to go to one of these clubs to dust off that history and make it shine once more," Conte added.
"Clubs where there’s pressure, where, ultimately, you know full well that you’re not going there just to take part, but to compete.
"If you go to a club where the history speaks for itself — a history made up of trophies, league titles and victories — you can only honour that history in one way: by having the ambition to bring that club back — if it isn’t there today — to fight for those goals.
"I know full well that only one team can win every year, but I must carry in my heart — and instil in the hearts of the fans, my players and my directors — that spark, that hope that makes you say, ‘F***, we can win’."
Connecting the dots would suggest that Manchester United, the 20-time league winners who have not lifted the Premier League trophy since 2012/13 and the FA Cup only twice since then, would fit the bill of the club Conte is talking about.