Antonio Conte has revealed the reasons why Chelsea couldn't sign Liverpool new boy Virgil Van Dijk
Virgil Van Dijk became the most expensive defender in the history of European football after Liverpool reached agreement to sign the 26-year old on a £75million record fee. Chelsea were unwilling to pay more than £50million for the defender according to reports.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte revealed there has been link with the blues and the dutch defender however the asking price to cling a deal was too much.
“This is football,” Conte said. “This is life. For sure he was our target but as you know this is football. We can have a lot of targets but you must be able to reach those targets. The transfer market is not simple for any club.”
“But Liverpool bought Van Dijk to reinforce his defensive line, and I think Van Dijk is a top defender,” he added. “And they spent [75] million euro for this player. The same time, they sold very well Coutinho because when you sell a player for this amount of money, and then you have the rest of money to invest, to improve your team.
“But I think the transfer market is not simple, it’s not simple, especially if there is this amount of money. It’s not simple, and Arsenal, I don’t know what happen but, I repeat, the best way to look at ourselves, to try to find the best solution for us is don’t look the other.
“But I have great respect for the other teams, from the other managers, because behind every operation there is a programme, is a plan and I have great respect for every manager, ever team.”
More transfer updates here
More transfer updates here