The fact Chelsea are trying to get deals over the line for Danny Drinkwater, Ross Barkley and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the last couple of days of the transfer window suggests the 2017 summer transfer window hasn’t exactly gone to plan for Antonio Conte.
The Italian manager has made it clear more than once that he would like more players for his rather depleted squad, and it seems everyone at Stamford Bridge is trying to make that happen as best they can.
Unfortunately, a lot of the targets Conte was after when the summer started also ended up choosing to either go elsewhere or remain at their current club.
Romelu Lukaku is the most obvious example, choosing to team up with José Mourinho at Manchester United instead of returning to his beloved Chelsea, but another is Dries Mertens.
The Belgian forward, who had an incredible goalscoring season for Napoli under Maurizio Sarri last year, was reported as a potential Conte signing as far back as December 2016, yet nothing ever materialised.
Although, that wasn’t for a lack of trying.
Speaking to Sport/Foot magazine in Belgium, the player’s agent, Stijn Francis said: “There was concrete interest from Barcelona and Chelsea, bit he’s happy in Naples and believes he can win a scudetto (Serie A).”
Since then, the Belgian star has renewed his contract with the Italian club until 2020.
