Antonio Conte is just two wins away from winning the Premier League in his debut season with Chelsea and the Italian is already looking forward to the next season. Apart from trying to defend their Premier League title next season, Chelsea will also be competing in the Champions League and the Blues will need to add more depth to their squad.
Reports say that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is ready to give Conte significant funds to improve his squad over the summer and the former Juventus manager is after two Roma players. Belgian midfielder Radja Nainggolan and German defender Antonio Rudiger are the two players who Conte is supposedly interested in bringing to Chelsea.
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Nainggolan came close to joining Chelsea last summer, but the Blues failed to match Roma's asking price of £32 million for the 29-year old. Now, reports in Italy claim that Nainggolan is not willing to sign a new deal with Roma as they once again failed to mount a title challenge and is keen to move to England.
Nainggolan has been steadily improving in the last four years at Roma and has notched up 13 goals and five assists so far this season.
"Yes, I spoke to Conte, they were really interested and wanted me over there. A lot of my team-mates play in England, it's the best league in the world, when the window opens, we will talks about it again," The Sun quoted Nainggolan as saying.
Rudiger was also linked with a move to Chelsea at the start of this season. Chelsea manager Conte was initially targeting a move for Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly last summer but after failing to secure a deal for him, Conte went after Rudiger. Had it not been for a serious knee injury that ruled him out of the Euro 2016, he would have probably been at Chelsea by now.
However, with Chelsea captain John Terry set to end his illustrious career at the at the end of this season, the Blues will need a new centre back to take over from him and Conte feels the German is an ideal replacement.
Both Nainggolan and Rudiger have a contract at Roma that runs till 2020 and Roma manager Luicano Spalletti will certainly not want to lose two of his best players after such a strong season in the Serie A. Despite the Roma duo having three years left on their current deal, Chelsea are set to submit a £70 million for them and test Roma's resolve.
Check out some of Radja Nainggolan's best skills and goal for AS Roma so far.
Check out some of Antonio Rudiger's best defencive work for AS Roma so far.
