Antonio Conte insists Chelsea could have dominated the Premier League if they had made two key signings
Antonio Conte has claimed he could have engineered a Chelsea dynasty if the club had signed Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku in 2017.
The ex-Blues The manager brought instant success to Stamford Bridge by winning the top-flight title in his first season in charge.
He also guided Chelsea to the FA Cup final in that 2016/17 campaign, but lost to Arsenalbefore winning the trophy the following season.
Despite winning two major awards, he was fired by the then owner. Roman Abramovich after Chelsea finished outside the Champions League places in fifth place in 2018.
But if count If he had his way, he could have dominated English football if the Russian billionaire had scored his top targets.
Commenting on his fight with Manchester City for the title, he said The Telegraph: “It's not easy. (Pep) Guardiola is the best coach in the world.
“And then when you can match the best coach in the world with a club that can back you and can invest to bring in important players to improve the team every season because they want to stay on top of the world, then it is very, very difficult to compete at the same level. .
“My story says that I always arrived at my clubs in a difficult situation and with problems. I always build.
“After my first season at Chelsea, when we won the title, we could have dominated in England.
“We spoke with Lukaku and Van Dijkand with those two important players we could have changed the situation.”
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lukakuwho finally returned to Chelsea in 2021 after winning the Serie A title at Inter Milan alongside Conte, was in Everton At the time.
He scored 25 goals in the Premier League in the 2016/17 season, with manchester united he eventually bought it for £75 million.
As for Van Dijk, he had been a protagonist for Southampton, and the Dutchman joined the Liverpool in the January 2018 transfer window, where he is now recognized as one of the best centre-backs of his generation.
Chelsea finally brought Alvaro Morata of Real Madrid having failed to sign Lukaku, while they signed Antonio Rudiger instead of Van Dijk.
Rudiger He proved to be a huge success in west London, although the same cannot be said for Morata, who scored just 24 goals in 72 games during his two years.
Chelsea are yet to win the Premier League since Conte's sacking, and fans will surely be wondering how they would have fared if he had gotten what he wanted.
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