Antonio Conte explains plans he had to dominate England with Chelsea
Former Chelsea and Tottenham manager, Antonio Conte has revealed something that not many fans of the club would have thought of before now.
According to the Italian manager, during his second season in charge at Stamford Bridge, he actually wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku, but his requests were never granted, as Chelsea ended up getting Danny Drinkwater and Alvaro Morata instead.
Conte said in an interview with the Telegraph: “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.”
Conte enjoyed reasonable success while managing Chelsea – winning the Premier League title and the FA Cup in his debut season, before he was sacked for Maurizo Sarri after his second season. But one can’t help, but imagine what he could have achieved if he was allowed to get the players he felt he needed.
The ex-Juventus boss was certainly on to something with his interest in Van Dijk, seeing how important the Dutchman turned out to be for Liverpool, even though we can’t exactly say the same about Lukaku, who obviously did return to Stamford Bridge under Thomas Tuchel, but couldn’t survive the pressure of playing for the Blues before he hurriedly went back to Inter Milan on loan.
Chelsea fans were indeed impressed with the passion Antonio Conte showed as Chelsea manager, and he won the league in his first season.
