Here are your Chelsea evening headlines for Thursday, December 10.
Inter Milan failed to sign N’Golo Kante
It has been revealed that Antonio Conte is extremely frustrated that Inter Milan were unable to offload two players so that he could sign Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante, who was a pivotal part of his success at Stamford Bridge, Italian journalist Maurizio Pistocchi reports.
Conte signed Kante for Chelsea in 2016. The pair immediately won the league title together and strong links in the summer suggested the French World Cup winner could reunite with his former manager in Milan.
Instead, Pistocchi’s report claims that Milan were unable to offload two key players, and despite Conte having personal negotiations with Kante, a deal could not be completed.
Pistocchi told Passione Inter via TeamTalk : “Conte had closed some personal negotiations with Kante, and was willing to come to Inter.
“He had identified him as the perfect player to win. They have not been able to get rid of the redundancies that have remained in Milan like [Radja] Nainggolan or [Matias] Vecino. He was annoyed about this.”
Frank Lampard confirms early team news
Frank Lampard confirmed that both Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi will miss Chelsea’s match against Everton this weekend.
Ziyech was substituted in the first half of Chelsea’s victory over Leeds last week with a hamstring injury, while Hudson-Odoi also has a hamstring problem and is expected to miss two weeks of action.
Speaking ahead of the contest, Lampard said: “We're the same as we were in midweek.
“Hakim and Callum are out for a couple of weeks. Christian [Pulisic] had a tiny bit of soreness after the Leeds game in his hamstring, but we should be as we were.”
Roman Abramovich wealth revealed
Roman Abramovich has been named among the Top 100 Richest Sports Club Owners by olbg.com.
And he is ready to open the purse strings once again this January if the world returns close to normal following Covid-19, as Fabrizio Romano told the Blue View Podcast last month.
The Russian, who has owned Chelsea since 2003, has a net worth of £9,641,205,000. He is the richest owner in the UK, edging out the Glazers of Manchester United and Joe Lewis of Tottenham Hotspur.
The club spent north of £200million in the summer as Abramovich backed Lampard in the transfer market, but more deals could be on the way, with Declan Rice heavily linked with a move to Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea have made an excellent start to the season, which they will be hoping to build on, with David Alaba rumoured to be a possible target.
