Antonio Conte is keen to make Graziano Pelle part of his Chelsea revolution.
The London Evening Standard have it that Conte has turned his attention to the Southampton striker because the Blues are being priced out of bids for Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku.
The Toffees are holding out for between £60-70million for their Belgian forward, so unsurprisingly, Conte is going to look at other options.
Pelle, who represented Italy at Euro 2016 this summer, scored 11 goals and provided 6 assists for the Saints last season, and while Chelsea have already signed Michy Batshuayi to link up with Diego Costa, Pelle would be a good third option to have.
At 30, Pelle should be nowhere near as expensive as Lukaku or Morata, though Southampton may haggle over the price because they are so desperate to keep him.
New Southampton manager Claude Puel has already seen Sadio Mane leave for Liverpool and Victor Wanyama depart for Tottenham, so he will be anxious not to allow Pelle to go if he can avoid it.
However, even if it isn’t Chelsea who steal him away, there is a good chance the Italy frontman is on his way out of St Mary’s.
The Star are reporting that mega-rich Chinese outfit Shanghai Greenland are willing to offer the player an incredible £150,000 a week to join them, so it’s probably best that Southampton start looking for a replacement.
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