Chelsea are reportedly preparing a €23 million January bid for AC Milan midfielder Giacomo Bonaventura
Since taking over in the summer, Antonio Conte has managed to spectacularly managed to turn things around at Chelsea and nearly a year after Jose Mourinho was sacked, they now sit at the summit to the English top flight with a 3 point lead ahead of their nearest rivals.
But that hasn’t stopped the Blues being linked with numerous players abroad, namely the Serie A who would add a significant amount of quality to their already world class roster.
Now, according to Transfermarket.web, Antonio Conte is plotting a January swoop for AC Milan’s Giacomo Bonaventura. The report states Chelsea are willing to submit an offer of €23 million to the Rossonerri in an attempt to lure him away from the San Siro.
Conte is familiar with Bonaventura, having worked with him in the Italian national team and seen him play in the Serie A during his time a manager of Juventus.
Since moving to AC Milan in the summer of 2014, Bonaventura has become a mainstay in the heart of the Rossonerri midfield and this season under Vincenzo Montella, has been in fine form, scoring 2 goals and registering 5 assists in 14 Serie A appearances and has only missed out the last two games due to a thigh injury.
A versatile and vastly experienced player, he is capable of playing as an attacking midfielder, a central midfielder and even on the wings, if required.
The introduction of the new 3-4-3 system allows for only 2 central midfielders in the team, which are taken up Nemanja Matic and N’golo Kante, both of whom have been fantastic this season alongside each other. But for all his defensive prowess, Matic cannot offer the same kind of creativity that Fabregas does, and that is something the Blues have missed out on on numerous occasions this season.
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The Blues do not have a player in their roster who could pick a pass out like the Spaniard, and that is made evident each passing week. However, Bonaventura would certainly offer more creativity going forward than Matic, whilst also being able to defend better than Fabregas.
It is balance in the middle of the park that Antonio Conte is striving to acheive with this squad and the 27-year-old might just be the man they’re looking for.
This interest also comes as a surprise, given that Antonio Conte decided to leave out Bonaventura from his Euro 2016 squad in the summer. It was just one of his many controversial omissions, which enraged his critics.
But the Italian insisted that he picked the players that offered him “the most guarantees” and he would eventually go on to silence his detractors after leading Italy to the quarterfinals, where the Azzurri only lost on penalties.
