Chelsea will demand £80m if they part with French midfielder N’Golo Kante, which Inter manager Antonio Conte wants.
Conte is keen to rebuild Inter’s midfield after seeing the Serie A title slip away last season and has made Kanté his dream signing this summer after missing out on Brescia’s Sandro Tonali to rivals AC Milan. Identified as
Conte wants Kante at Inter / Chris Brunskill Limited / Getty Images
The problem is that Chelsea feel no real pressure to sell. Kante still has three years left on his contract and is happy in London, so The Mirror say the Blues have put an £80m price tag on his head.
Frank Lampard hopes to keep Kante at Stamford Bridge, but there is an awareness that selling the 29-year-old is probably the best way to raise money, and with Bayer Leverkusen’s £90m deal for Kai Havertz, the balance Keeping up, soon to be completed. Books don’t seem like the worst idea.
Conte hopes to raise plenty of money by selling fringe players such as Roberto Gagliardini and Matias Vicino, but one player who could find his way into negotiations is Croatia midfielder Marcelo Brozovi.
Chelsea are interested in Bruzovic/DeFoddy Images/Getty Images.
Inter boss Brozovic is ready to offload, and a source confirmed to 90 Minutes that Chelsea are interested in offloading him after international team-mate Mateo Kovic sang Lampard’s praises.
As well as Brozovic, Chelsea duo Emerson Palmieri and Olivier Giroud have also emerged as keen to sign both Conte and Kante.
There was even a questionable report from Sport Mediaset (via Semper Inter), which claimed Conte had launched a combined £60m bid for the three players. Unsurprisingly, Chelsea didn’t bite.
There is no active desire to sell Kanté, who was a key player for the Blues when he was truly fit last season. He managed 28 appearances in all competitions, failing to start the only three games for which he was available.
After the lockdown, Kante enjoyed excellent form that helped Chelsea to victories over Manchester City and Leicester, only for his fifth injury of the season to end his campaign abruptly.
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