Chelsea have made two very important acquisitions this summer which cost the club £63.58m. Michy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante put the Blues 4th on the list of this summer’s biggest Premier League investors with Manchester City being first, Manchester United second and Liverpool third. According to The Guardian, things could change by the end of the week as Conte’s fondness for Serie A players might finally result in some important transfers. There are two players who have a combined market value of over £60m and would bring Chelsea to a whole other level.
The first and most important target is Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly. Even though the Italian side drives a hard bargain, Conte still has hope a deal can be made by the end of the transfer period. It`s not an urgent matter and it is the perfect timing for such a move given the fact that Terry and Cahill look like they are still doing an amazing job. With the captain getting older though, the winter period could be the perfect time to refresh the center of the defense for the seasons to come. The Senegal international is valued at around £32m but could end up costing even more after what Juventus paid for Higuain. Abramovich could be tempted to pay after finding out how much City spent on Everton’s John Stones (£47.26m).
The second big transfer, even though somewhat unexpected, might represent a massive boost for Chelsea is that of Mauro Icardi. Inter’s striker who is under contract until 2019 is not getting along with the Serie A side who apparently haven’t held their end of the bargain when it comes to last summer’s contract extension. The lack of perspective, the bigger salary and the idea of playing on a regular basis against teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City should be enough to convince this Argentine international to leave Italy for Stamford Bridge. Icardi is valued at about £35m and would be massive competition for Diego Costa and Batshuayi. There’s also the fact that signing a striker like him would allow Conte to have the option of playing with two star-quality strikers whenever he wants/needs.
It`s not about competing with others regarding how much you spend though. It`s about building a team that makes fans forget what happened last season so it does not actually matter how much money will go towards Serie A as long as Conte has all the players he needs.