Antonio Conte’s admiration for countryman Marco Verratti is well documented as the manager selected him to play in the Italian national side when Conte was the boss and the midfielder is clearly the type of player Conte highly covets as Verratti can do it all. With the imminent departure of Oscar to China, Chelsea are looking to bolster their midfield options and Verratti is top of Antonio Conte’s wanted list. However with the recent departures of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Luiz, Paris Saint Germain are reluctant to let another one of their experienced veteran leaders leave the club especially in the winter transfer window when it is tough to sign replacements particularly for top players. PSG manager Unai Emery is going to play hardball when it comes to a bid for the Italian midfielder.

With PSG reportedly not willing to let the player leave for less than £40 million the French side will test Chelsea’s resolve who were looking to land the player for around £30 million. Roman Abramovich is likely to sanction the finances required to land the player especially in light of the £52 million fee he is reportedly due to receive from Chinese side Shanghai SIPG for Oscar.

Donato Di Campli, the agent for the outspoken midfielder said before the season his client would want to leave France if they did not win silverware this season and since PSG currently sit in 3rd in Ligue 1 and face Barca in the round of 16 in the Champions League, trophies are far from certain. As the Daily Mail reported, speaking about the situation in earlier months Verratti’s agent said,

‘Contracts are made and unmade in three minutes. We’ll see PSG’s aims.

‘Marco is happy to be there but he wants to win something important. He can not stay in a team that does not win.’

When Antonio Conte was questioned about the possible acquisition of Verratti from PSG during his Friday press conference the typically classy manager said,

‘I don’t like to talk about different players [to the media], because this is a great lack of respect,’

So this potential acquisition is clearly the type of player which would improve Chelsea and meets Conte’s needs plus it would send a massive statement of intent to Chelsea’s rivals. Blues fans will be hoping Antonio Conte can get this deal over the line as it seems like it would be a massive coup for the club.