Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich refused to sign a group of four older experienced players, despite manager Antonio Conte wanting to sign them this summer, according to the Sun journalist Andrew Dillon.
The Blues were heavily linked with Juventus pair Leonardo Bonucci and Claudio Marchisio, as well as Swansea’s Fernando Llorente and Inter’s Antonio Candreva, but all four were on the wrong side of 30.
Dillon reports Conte wanted the players as he has worked with all of them before either at Juve or for Italy, and he felt he needed more experience in his squad in order to put up a good defence of their Premier League title.
Instead, it seems Abramovich wanted Conte and his support staff to sign younger players. Monaco’s Tiemoue Bakayoko (23), Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata (24) , Torino’s Davide Zappacosta (25), and Roma’s Antonio Rudiger (24), were all 25 or younger, while their oldest signing Willy Caballero (35) was sanctioned on a free transfer.
