Conte wants Llorente reunion

According to The Independent manager Antonio Conte wants to go back in for Fernando Llorente, to finally solve Chelsea’s striking problem in this window.

The article says the Italian tactician wanted to bring in his former Juventus player in the summer as back-up for Alvaro Morata, only for us to hijack the move late on and get the Spanish international for a £12m deal.

The article adds how it has come back to bite Chelsea as Morata is currently suffering a bit of a drought and back-up Michy Batshuayi still hasn’t adapted to the manager’s system well enough to regularly star and the Belgian will be sent on loan if Conte can bring in another option.

It goes on to say the Italian thereby wants to test how willing Chelsea’s London rivals would be to keep the striker. It adds how West Ham United’s Andy Carroll is another player who has been looked at (don’t laugh) but Llorente would be cheaper, and there is another reason why Conte wants him.

It adds that apart from knowing and trusting the 32-year-old from Juventus, Conte thinks Llorente could be crucial to helping Morata through some of the slumps he has already suffered in a stop-start first season in England. It describes how Llorente mentored his younger compatriot before when both played in Turin.

The article goes on to describe how Morata has talked about his ongoing efforts to adapt to the physicality of England, and it adds that it is something that Llorente did actually struggle with too on first signing for Swansea City in 2016-17, before successfully adjusting and then hitting supreme form for his goals to help keep the Welsh club up.

It adds that Llorente would also provide an alternative tactical option since he can both play instead of Morata and with him in a two however it does say it remains to be seen if Spurs would be willing to sell is another issue, especially since Mauricio Pochettino has been such a vocal admirer of Llorente’s style and influence on his squad.

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