Conte reveals he tried to sign Van Dijk at Chelsea

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ByLorenzo Bettoni

Feb 14, 2024 12:57

During his interview with The Telegraph, Antonio Conte said he had tried to sign Romelu Lukaku and Virgil Van Dijk at Chelsea in 2017.

The Italian tactician is the only coach to have won a league title ahead of a Pep Guardiola team alongside José Mourinho (Real Madrid) and Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool).

Conte did so in 2016-17 in his first season at Stamford Bridge.

“It’s not easy,” he said.

“Guardiola is the best coach in the world. And then when you can match the best coach in the world with a club that can back you and can invest to bring in important players to improve the team every season because they want to stay at the top of the world, then it is very, very difficult to compete at the same level.

“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.”

Van Dijk eventually joined Liverpool in the 2018 January transfer window, while Lukaku joined Manchester United from Everton in the summer of 2017.

The Belgian striker eventually returned to Chelsea from Inter in the summer of 2021 for €113m. Lukaku had just won the Serie A title with Conte at Inter, but both left the Stadio Meazza after lifting the Scudetto.

Lukaku, currently on loan at Roma from Chelsea, has netted 64 times in 95 games under Conte at Inter.

During the same interview with The Telegraph, Conte said that he dreams of winning the Champions League as a coach and insisted that his three-man defence is not too defensive.