Antonio Conte Eyes Swansea Man in January Who Could Become Key Part In Title Race
Dec 30, 2016 at 4:44 PM
With 12 victories in the last 12 games, Antonio Conte’s Chelsea have now made a strong start to their Premier League campaign going into the second half of the season.
The lack of European matches has surely helped the side but we can take nothing away from how good the Italian manager has been in his first season in the country.
Having spent loads of money in the transfer window, Conte has been able to settle into a starting XI that is winning his games consistently but he will know that his squad does not have the required depth to take them through the season.
Diego Costa picked up a suspension for accumulation of yellow cards and was out of the game against the Cherries recently and Conte decided to go without a genuine striker, keeping young Michy Batshuayi on the bench.
So it does not come as a surprise that he is active in the January transfer market for a striker and reports today have revealed that he is now eyeing his former compatriot Fernando Llorente.
The Spanish striker spent a couple of season under the Chelsea manager in Turin and it is understood that Conte is desperate for an experienced striker who can cover for the inform Costa in crunch games.
The 31-year old is also in his first year in England, having moved to Swansea from Sevilla in the summer for an undisclosed fee. But he has already been successful at the Liberty Stadium, scoring 6 goals in 15 appearances for the Welsh outfit.
However, with the Swans struggling to come out of the drop zone, there is not much to play for Llorente who might be willing to move to Chelsea, jumping from one end of the table to the other.
The Blues spent close to €0m for the Belgian striker Batshuayi in the summer but the youngster has not been able to settle into his life in England and has provided a return of just 1 goal from 11 games.
Conte, in his time at Juventus, has used a system with two strikers for crunch games and if the time comes, Llorente can play that role to perfection, having already done it a few years ago in Italy.
Chelsea have a great chance of going all the way this season and having a player who has the experience of winning titles in the squad will only help them in the long run.
At 31, the Spanish striker also has a few years left in him, which will give Batshuayi the chance to excel, helping the overall progress of the squad making this transfer a very productive one.
Do you think Chelsea should spend on Llorente in January?