Antonio Conte wanted Chelsea to sign Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku
According to the Telegraph, former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has revealed the names of two players he wanted the club to sign.
The Italian believes that securing both Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku could have helped him stay in the job past his second season.
“I asked for two players and we were very, very close after we won the league.”
Conte led the club to an impressive double of the Premier League and the FA Cup in his first season at the club. He was keen to add to it from a position of strength going into his second season.
Unfortunately, neither player joined the club and Conte would not make it to a third campaign with the Blues.
Hindsight is an important trait, especially when it comes to transfers. Conte certainly appears to have had it given how both players have gone on to perform elsewhere.
Conte was in regular contact with the players and believed their additions would have ensured Chelsea dominated for years to come.
“We were in contact every day and I always said that with these two players we would improve my team by 30 percent.”
To be fair, one would have been excused if they felt Liverpool overpaid for Van Dijk back in 2018. The Dutchman has since grown into arguably the best defender on the planet and has silenced his critics.
Lukaku, on the other hand, was coming off an excellent spell at Everton. Manchester United, however, beat us to him and he went on to enjoy reasonable success at the Theatre of Dreams.
Now under Conte at Inter Milan, Lukaku has thrived and is scoring for fun. If anything, it is a vindication of the manager’s desire to pursue his signature while at Chelsea.
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It is debatable if both players would have reached their current levels of success at Chelsea. However, Conte is confident that they would have set us up for an era of dominance.
Whether that would truly have been the case, we will now never know.
