All for the Love of Conte: Chelsea Ready £60m Bid for Sandro

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Chelsea’s determination to retain Antonio Conte as manager at the end of this season sees the club preparing a £60m bid for Juventus defender Alex Sandro, reports the Daily Mirror.

The defending Premier League champions made several attempts during the summer to land the 26-year-old Brazilian but were rebuffed by the Bianconeri.

Sandro is believed to be open to a move to Stamford Bridge while Chelsea are desperate to fend off strong interest from Italy over Conte. AC Milan joined Internazionale in monitoring the former Italian national team coach’s situation.

Sandro has become an automatic first-choice for the perennial Italian champions since joining from Porto during 2015 in a €26m deal. It’s no coincidence that Juve are trying to tie down the highly-rated left back to a new £5m pa deal.

Chelsea, with Roman Abramovich’s backing, can double that offer, as well as paying a significant signing-on fee to the seven-times capped Brazilian international.

Conte endured a summer to forget when the Blues were continually snubbed by his top targets, continuing a theme which haunts his tenure.

Since taking over at the club, he has repeatedly tried to sign defenders from Serie A and found Napoli, Roma and Juventus all unwilling to release their star talents despite some incredible sums being offered.

Juve, in the current inflated market, are likely to see far more than the £60m being mooted as a potential bid.