Conte wants to buy only already adapted players in January; rules out Courtois sale

Good news for the likes the recently linked Fernando Llorente then, as Conte declared in Friday’s press-conference that if players were to come in during January, he’d prefer them to be already adapted to his system. Llorente of course played and played quite well under Conte at Juventus three years ago.

“In January it is always very difficult to buy because every team thinks to keep their best players, not to sell, but with the club we are thinking about the best way to face the rest of the season. For sure we are thinking about our situation and our squad.”

“When you have a good group, a new player can arrive into the group in a simple way, and for sure we have sold Oscar and we have money to spend, but it is important to spend money in the right way. I prefer to buy players adapted to our system that can come into our team and pass, but I repeat, it is not easy in January to find these type of players but with the club, we are working on this aspect.”

In the summer, the emphasis was on buying “the right” players, but with time available to train and mold them as we’d like, the options were no doubt much greater than now, in January (not to mention teams being more reluctant to sell halfway through a season than in the off-season).

On the plus side, this impasse could open up opportunities for other newcomers to the squad.

“We have a lot of young players and I trust in them. Ola Aina, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Nathaniel Chalobah, and also we have Zouma returned.”

“Kenedy and Charly Musonda came back from their loans at Watford and Real Betis because they didn’t play a lot and for this reason it is important for them to stay with us these weeks to evaluate the best situation for them and the team. It is important also to work with these type of young players to try find the right solutions at home, and if this is not possible, it is important to look around to find the solution.”

One place where we aren’t planning on looking around to find solution is the position of goalkeeper. With Real Madrid rumors swirling around again, Chelsea are supposedly working on a new extension for Thibaut Courtois, while Conte confirmed on Friday that the 24-year-old isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“Thibaut for me is one of the best, if not the best goalkeeper in the world. He is working very well and is a fantastic goalkeeper and he stays with us, this is the most important thing and the other situations are only speculation.”

-Antonio Conte; source: Chelsea FC

So say we all.