Just like Romelu Lukaku last summer, N’Golo Kanté is Antonio Conte’s main priority this summer to bolster the Inter squad.
Gazzetta dello Sport couldn’t make it any clearer on Monday, splashing the Chelsea midfielder on their front page and dedicating a good page and a half to the Serie A club’s pursuit of the player inside.
The Covid-19 ‘austerity’, as they call it, may have led them to renounce on Sandro Tonali (who went to rivals Milan) and perhaps even Marash Kumbulla, but Conte refuses to let Kanté slip through his fingers.
Gazzetta explain the France international’s name ‘was circled in red’ in the manager’s list, and like the aforementioned Belgian, ‘he is convinced he is the one to allow the leap in quality’.
He would be able to build his midfield around him, and it’s a message ‘received and shared’ by those above him.
However, this won’t be a ‘low-cost operation’, and while Chelsea ‘are willing to sell’, they will only do so for ‘at least €50m’.
As has been previously reported, both Beppe Marotta and Piero Ausilio will need to find that through sales of their own players, as they don’t have it currently sitting around in their coffers.
Any doubts fans and Inter staff members may have had about Kanté’s injuries and form this year will also have been dispelled by his performance against Sweden for France, with Didier Deschamps praising the Chelsea star despite knowing full well he’s still not 100% fit.
Either way, with Frank Lampard seemingly ready to do without him in his new look team at Stamford Bridge, this could very well be the time for a new adventure for a player who, let’s not forget, most only discovered five years ago at the age of 24.
