9 months ago
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Antonio Conte has claimed he could have masterminded a dynasty at Chelsea had the club signed Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku in 2017.
The ex-Blues boss brought instant success to Stamford Bridge having won the top-flight title in his first season in charge.
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He also guided Chelsea to the FA Cup final in that 2016/17 campaign, but they lost to Arsenal, before he got his hands on the trophy the following term.
Despite winning two major honours, he was sacked by then-owner Roman Abramovich after Chelsea finished outside of the Champions League places in fifth in 2018.
But if Conte had his way, he could have dominated English football if the Russian billionaire brought in his top targets.
Commenting on his fight with Manchester City for the title, he told 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 at the top of the world, then it is very, very difficult to compete at the same level.
“My history says that I always arrived at my clubs in a difficult situation with problems. I always build.
"After my first season at Chelsea, when we won the title, we could have become dominant in England.
"We spoke with Lukaku and Van Dijk, and with those two important players we could have changed the situation.”
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Lukaku, who eventually returned to Chelsea in 2021 after winning the Serie A title at Inter Milan alongside Conte, was at Everton at the time.
He had scored 25 Premier League goals in the 2016/17 season, with Manchester United eventually snapping him up for £75million.
Simon Jordan and Martin Keown clash again over Antonio Conte's departure from Tottenham, following their 6-1 loss to Newcastle
As for Van Dijk, he had been starring for Southampton, with the Dutchman linking up with Liverpool in the 2018 January transfer window, where he is now recognised as one of the best centre-backs of his generation.
Chelsea ultimately brought in Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid having failed to sign Lukaku, while they signed Antonio Rudiger instead of Van Dijk.
Rudiger turned out to be a huge success in west London, though the same can't be said of Morata, who scored just 24 goals in 72 games from his two-year spell.
Chelsea are yet to win the Premier League since Conte's axing, with fans surely left wondering how they may have fared if he had got what he wanted.
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