Antonio Conte has revealed how he wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku during his time as Chelsea manager.
Conte spent two seasons at Chelsea and led the west Londoners to the Premier League title in his debut 2016/17 campaign at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea were unable to build on that success despite winning the FA Cup the following season, dropping to fifth in the table with Conte leaving at the end of his second campaign.
The Italian has opened up on his time at Chelsea in an interview with The Telegraph, discussing the difficulties in challenging Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
He revealed how Chelsea missed out on the signing of Virgil van Dijk from Southampton and Romelu Lukaku from Everton at the end of his first season, two players who he believes ‘could have changed the situation’.
Lukaku signed for Manchester United for a fee of £75m that summer, before eventually impressing under Conte’s management as Inter Milan won the Serie A title in 2020/21.
Van Dijk, meanwhile, joined Liverpool in a £75m deal in January 2018 and established himself as arguably the best centre-back in the world at Anfield.
“It’s not easy,” said Conte. “Guardiola is the best coach in the world. And then when you can match the best coach in the world with a club that can back you and can invest to bring in important players to improve the team every season because they want to stay at the top of the world, then it is very, very difficult to compete at the same level.
“My history says that I always arrived at my clubs in a difficult situation with problems. I always build. After my first season at Chelsea, when we won the title, we could have become dominant in England. We spoke with (Romelu) Lukaku and (Virgil) van Dijk, and with those two important players we could have changed the situation.”
Read – Paul Lambert: Exclusive interview with the Celtic and Dortmund icon
See more – The defenders with the most assists in Premier League history
Subscribe to our social channels:
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
