Inter Milan ‘have started talks’ with Chelsea over Emerson, official bid imminent — report

Antonio Conte is a winner and winners don’t stop. Antonio Conte also likes to work with players he knows. And while he may not achieve the former in his first season at Inter Milan — the Scudetto’s likely going to either Juventus or Lazio — he will be doing his utmost to not suffer a similar fate next season. And that could involve a fair bit of the latter.

Along those lines, Fabrizio Romano (and Gianluca Di Marzio, too) are reporting that Conte wants to acquire Emerson (again), and an official bid from Inter Milan is incoming “soon”. Talks are already under way, apparently.

That’s certainly good news for Chelsea as we’re looking to strengthen the left back position, and it’s good for Inter as well, whose left wing-back is Ashley Young.

This comes on the back of Inter signing one of the most promising young right wing-backs in the world, Achraf Hakimi from Real Madrid. The 21-year-old attacking juggernaut scored 9 goals and grabbed 10 assists while playing on loan at Borussia Dortmund.

Now that Inter’s right wing-back situation is fixed for years to come, attentions have turned to the left.

There aren’t too many amazing options available on the left side, as we’ve been finding out for ourselves as well. Chelsea have been linked with the likes of Ben Chilwell, Alex Telles, Nicolas Tagliafico, and most recently, Lucas Digne.

Even though Emerson has two years on his contract, Chelsea are expected to be more than willing to part with him. Lampard seems to not rate him much: 10 of Emerson’s 13 Premier League starts came before the turn of the year, and his involvement overall has been waning. Last weekend’s start in the FA Cup was not only his first appearance since the Restart, it was his first appearance altogether since late January. He wasn’t even named in the matchday squad in 6 out of the 10 games during that span.

Emerson was signed to bolster Conte’s options at wing-back at Chelsea, but he was still recovering from knee surgery and was limited to just a handful of appearances before Conte’s sacking six months later. Now he and Emerson just might get a do-over.