Chelsea to concentrate on buying Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sánchez, and keeping Eden Hazard — reports

The latest configuration of the already spinning summer merry-go-round is that Chelsea will prioritize potential targets Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sánchez in the upcoming transfer window. You might say that’s old news, but there had been some rumors that Álvaro Morata was back in the forefront of the picture as well. However, according to the Telegraph’s Matt Law and Sam Wallace, that’s not the case, and Chelsea are prioritizing the more impressive transfer targets instead.

The balance of rumors certainly seems to be tipping in favor of Lukaku and/or Alexis rather than Morata.

Good.

Another topic no doubt up for discussion during this supposed meeting of Conte and the Chelsea Board was the future of Eden Hazard, who has once again been subject to a strong blast of white noise from Spain and Real Madrid specifically. But as Conte said in his press conference, Eden Hazard is ours and they can’t have him — even if we might delay contract talks until the summer so that we can fully concentrate on the winning the league and hopefully the FA Cup as well.

“The only thing that I can say to Eden is just to play. We are happy with him. He is happy with us. I don't see problems about him.”

“This is a part of our game also, for others to try to put out these rumours to create a bit of difficulty in the mind of the players. I think we have great experience to face these situations and also my players. It is normal, it is logical in this part of the season to start rumours about our players and I am very happy because it means we are doing a great job.”

-Antonio Conte; source: Sky

The boredom and emptiness of international breaks always lends itself to an increased volume of transfer rumor shenanigans. With proper football back under way, hopefully we can get a brief respite from all that noise and get back to what matters the most, winning.