Former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has admitted that his side spoke with one top player when he was in charge of the club.
He told the Telegraph that the Blues were in talks to sign Virgil van Dijk, before he ended up at Liverpool.
Conte enjoyed a very successful two year spell at Stamford Bridge, winning the Premier League as well the FA Cup while here.
However, his second season certainly did not live up to the heights sit in his first one in charge.
Many believe this came as a result of a poor transfer window, where they really didn’t strengthen with the likes of Alvaro Morata and Danny Drinkwater coming in.
Conte has now admitted there were two big transfers he was hoping were made that summer.
Conte wanted Van Dijk at Chelsea
He said: “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.”
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Van Dijk has gone on to become one of the most dominant defenders in world football, with him being joining rivals Liverpool for a fee of around £75m.
Even though he wasn’t quite at that level while playing for Southampton at this time, it was clear to see where his career was headed.
While Conte didn’t get his wish of Romelu Lukaku up top, Thomas Tuchel did a few years later.
The Belgian’s return to the club he joined as a youngster turned sour though, with him very quickly pushing for a move back to Italy and away from Stamford Bridge amid a tough run of form in his first season back.
