Chelsea are growing in confidence that they can hijack Manchester United’s deal for Alvaro Morata and believe manager
Antonio Conte holds the key.
The Spanish striker was believed to have agreed terms with United last week, though the Red Devils were still waiting to agree a fee with Real Madrid after unsuccessful talks.
That delay has allowed Chelsea to barge in at the last minute, and the Mirror say Morata’s desire to work under Conte could swing the deal in their favour.
United have recently become the main protagonists in Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest transfer saga, with the Portuguese winger thought to favour a return to Old Trafford over any other move.
That has contributed to United’s delay in concluding a deal for Morata, with Ronaldo’s bombshell forcing them to re-think their summer plans.
According to reports in Spain, Jose Mourinho had been phoning the 24-year-old striker on a near daily basis to convince him that he will be the main man at United.
But the potential arrival of Ronaldo would undermine that message, and could give Morata cause to reconsider his options this summer.
A move to Chelsea would mean he finally gets to link up with Conte, a manager he is desperate to work with and who signed him at Juventus before leaving to take charge of Italy.
In an interview with The Guardian in April, he said: ‘Various Premier League coaches called to tell me to play for them. I said yeah, I’d like to, that if I had to leave I would almost certainly go to London, but that I didn’t know what Madrid would do.
‘I knew they’d bring me back but I didn’t know if it was to keep me or sell me. I spoke directly to Mauricio Pochettino and Antonio Conte, although the norm is clubs call my dad or agent. Madrid said they didn’t want to sell, so here I am.
‘I remember talking to my dad then and him saying: “This guy’s going to win the league there.”
‘Conte is the manager who most “bet” on me, without even ever having had me in his team. I’m very conscious of that: he bet on me for Juventus but left before I arrived; then he wanted me at Chelsea come what may. He knows me better than I could imagine, I’m sure, and that’s important: it motivates you to work hard, train well.
‘I feel indebted to him because he’s the coach that most trusted in me, most wanted me, who made me feel I could perform at the highest level. And yet I’ve never had the fortune to actually work with him. I’m sure sooner or later I will.’
ihapps 