Chelsea had hoped to three or four major signings to supplement a squad which came 10th last season, with already N’Golo Kanté and Michy Batshuayi, for a combined £65.1m from Leicester City and Marseille respectively, Conte and Chelsea are looking to reinforce defense with a center defender and left-back before the deadline passes at the end of August.
Chelsea has interest in Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, the Italian club, who have already rejected an offer worth £42.5m for the centre-half, now value the 25-year-old at closer to £60m. That for a player who has six caps for Senegal and cost only £7m from Genk in 2014.
This is exactly what Antonion Conte said during the post-press conference after Watford's game :“At this moment it’s very difficult to buy because, also, if you ask a player of the medium level, a club might ask for £55m. For this reason, it’s a crazy market. It’s very difficult to enter the market with these prices and in this condition."
‘If you look now at the Chelsea squad we only have five defenders, and four started the game today. [Ola] Aina is a guy of the Academy, [born in] 96, very good with great potential, but you know with a young player you must work to improve him and put him in the first team.
‘I am sure Aina has a good future, but with the numbers, five defenders, if there is an injury or a ban we are in trouble. The club and I know this, and we are talking every day to improve the squad, but we know the market is very difficult.
‘I don’t want to buy a player only to buy him, I want to buy the right player for Chelsea, for the present and for the future. A good prospect. It’s important we make a good investment.’
There is interest, too, in the Wolfsburg left-back Ricardo Rodríguez and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku, though hopes of securing the Real Madrid forward, Álvaro Morata, have long since faded.
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