After a quiet January transfer window, Chelsea are already plotting to dive into the summer market with a huge £100million spending spree.
That’s according to the Mirror, who report that Antonio Conte has identified three chief targets who will take up that budget.
All of the trio have been linked with the Blues before. They are Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk, Celtic forward Moussa Dembele, and Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata .
Morata, who is struggling for game time at the Bernabeu, knows Conte from their brief time at Juventus together before the latter left to take the Italy job, while Dembele was a reported Deadline Day target this week.
Celtic stood firm, but it’s still thought Chelsea could return with an offer in the region of £40million at the end of the season for the former Fulham starlet, who has scored 20 goals for the Hoops.
As for Van Dijk, Southampton are almost resigned to losing the defender once he has recovered from injury. Jose Fonte’s performance for West Ham against Manchester City suggests that maybe it was Van Dijk who was making him look good at St Mary’s, and that’s exactly the kind of leader Conte needs.
Of course, Roman Abramovich will do well if he can capture all three, but he’s certainly got the resources to tempt their current clubs into selling.
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