Antonio Conte has been left frustrated after not being able to sign Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante at Inter Milan. (GETTY Images)
A report by TeamTalk, which cites an interview given by Italian journalist Maurizio Pistocchi to Passione Inter (h/t football.london) states that Antonio Conte has been left frustrated at not being able to sign N’Golo Kante.
The Inter Milan manager wanted to bring the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner to Serie A, but wasn’t able to do so as Inter could not offload two players in order to sign the Frenchman.
Pistocchi claimed that Inter could not offload redundant players like Radja Nainggolan and Matias Vecino to make conditions possible for signing Kante, and this exasperated Conte.
“He had identified him as the perfect player to win. They have not been able to get rid of the redundancies… like Nainggolan or Vecino. He was annoyed about this.”
Conte signed N’Golo Kante in the summer of 2016 from Leicester City when he was a manager at Chelsea, and the duo went onto win the Premier League that season.
There were strong links throughout the summer that Kante was headed to Inter. However, a deal couldn’t materialize. (h/t football.london)
Pistocchi mentions that personal terms had been agreed between Kante and Conte, but Inter let the Italian down.
“Conte had closed some personal negotiations with Kante, and was willing to come to Inter.”
Kante has had a solid season with Frank Lampard after being out of form for a while. He has started in all 11 Premier League games this season, playing the full 90 minutes in all but one of those matches. (h/t transfermarkt)
His combative style of play and tireless running in midfield has helped the Blues reach third place in the Premier League table, just two points behind the league leaders.
The Frenchman will be expected to feature at the weekend as Chelsea travel to Merseyside to take on Everton in a late kick-off on Saturday.
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