Amoyal: What impact will Antonio Conte have on Chelsea’s transfer market?
While his ability as tactician has been underrated until this summer, two of Conte's best attributes that have always been obvious are his intensity and focus- because of them Conte tends to give his all to just one project at a time. But now that his time on Italy's bench is over, Conte can finally put his energy into improving Chelsea. Conte’s recent history gives us some clues on what we can expect in the coming weeks. While Chelsea is coming off a disastrous season and many of their rivals are improved, their squad is still in far better shape than what Conte inherited at Juventus- like he often likes to remind the media and fans, before he took over the bianconeri were coming off back to back 7th place finishes.
Historically Conte has been very involved with his club's moves on the transfer market- he left Bari after bringing them back to Serie A because he didn't feel the management valued his input, later on he worked very closely with Juventus' directors Paratici and Marotta in rebuilding the Old Lady.
In his first transfer window as Juventus coach, Conte brought in players like Lichtsteiner, Vucinic and Vidal. While Conte wasn't familiar with the Chilean midfielder prior to the signing, Vidal's dynamic style of play was one of the reasons why Conte left his trusted 4 2 2 2 (often described as a 4 2 4) to switch to the 3 5 2 he is known for today- it of course helped to also have 3 great center backs like Bonucci, Barzagli and Chiellini.
Considering the impact Vidal made at Juventus, it's not surprising that Conte made pursuing Nainggolan the top priority. The Belgian midfielder was probably the closest version to the Vidal we saw the first two years at Juventus available on the market, but Pjanic's abrupt departure to the bianconeri made it very difficult for Roma to make another very unpopular move with their fans.
Since Nainggolan wasn't pushing to join Chelsea, it was possible for Roma to turn down the Blues’ last reported bid of €40 million. While it's only the first week in July and a lot can happen, it looks like Chelsea is looking elsewhere to bolster the midfield- Di Marzio linked them to Witsel (who is however closer to joining Everton or Napoli) while others have mentioned Kante and Andre’ Gomes.
One player who already signed for Chelsea is striker Michy Batshuay, who just like Drogba twelve years ago is leaving Marseille to join the Blues. Considering his young age (he'll turn 23 in October) Chelsea got him at the reasonable price of €40 million, at least for the Premier League standards.
It will be interesting to see what else Chelsea does at the striker position- through out his career as manager Conte has always started two attackers. Diego Costa has been linked to his former club Atletico Madrid, while Chelsea has interest in Alvaro Morata and Graziano Pelle'. Prior to resigning as Juventus coach, Conte pushed hard for the bianconeri to sign Morata- the Blues could offer Real Madrid considerably more than what they spent on the buy back (around €30 million) while enticing Morata with an annual salary of €7 million net of taxes- which is double what he made at Juventus.
While many will remember Pelle's disastrous penalty kick in the shootout against Germany, he was outstanding in the Euro in my opinion. In Italy they would describe it as someone that "fa reparto da solo"- Pelle' was essentially a one man offense, opening space for his teammates and battling opponents on every header while applying pressure. He also scored two "f you" goals to finish off Belgium and Spain.
It's not surprising that after watching him up close and personal, Conte wants to bring Pelle' to Chelsea- he has the work rate and ability to create chances for others that Conte values so much in strikers. Chelsea however faces competition from Everton for Pelle', a player their new coach Koeman knows well after previously coaching him.
For the defense, Chelsea's top target is now Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly, arguably the most improved player in Serie A last season. The center back established himself under new coach Sarri (Koulibaly mentioned they barely practiced defense under Benitez) and is now worth considerably more than the wages Napoli is currently paying him- both Koulibaly and his agent have publicly stated they want a raise.
Napoli has already signed former Empoli center back Lorenzo Tonelli, one of the most underrated defenders in Serie A. Having him on the squad already gives Napoli some flexibility, in Di Marzio's last report on Koulibaly he mentioned that Napoli had contacted the Senegalese defender's agent to discuss the situation but had not offered an extension- Koulibaly will evaluate his options at this point.
Koulibaly would an excellent addition for Chelsea. He's just entering his prime after recently turning 25, he has a very strong body (1.95 meters) and Conte has a great track record of developing center backs- getting him from Napoli will not be easy or cheap, but would be well worth the effort.
Now that the Euro is over, Conte is ready to put his stamp on Chelsea starting with this summer transfer window- the rest of the Premier League has been put on notice.
See you next Tuesday for another round of transfer talk
David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal
