Antonio Conte is surely a magician, otherwise, the way he turned around the fortunes of Chelsea in such a short amount of time would not have been possible. At this time last year, Chelsea were languishing in the bottom half of the table just the season after their Premier League triumph. The confidence of the Blues was very low when Conte took the job but the former Juventus manager has guided the West London club to the top of the table and Chelsea look strong enough to be in the title race until the end of the season.
If Chelsea can keep up their good form, they should be in the Champions League next season and will need more options in the squad. So, the rumour mill linking them with a host of players is not at all surprising.
The Daily Star claims that Chelsea want Napoli left-back Faouzi Ghoulam in January in order to bolster their squad. The same report claims that Conte wanted the Algerian international in the summer too but Napoli held firm to the Blues’ approach.
When a manager comes from one league to another, we have seen most of them bringing in players from their former leagues. We saw Jürgen Klopp bringing in players like Joel Matip and Loris Karius from Bundesliga and both are doing pretty well.
Conte has a significant experience of managing in Italy and during his time at Juventus, the Turin club was the dominant force in Italian football. He knows Italian football and the footballers inside out and that is probably the reason why Chelsea are constantly getting linked with a host of Serie A players.
Ghoulam has been one of the best left-backs in Serie A since his switch to Napoli from Saint-Etienne back in 2014. Since then, he has played 97 games for the Serie A giants. He has been really impressive this campaign having set up five goals from 17 games in all competitions. A brilliant attacking full-back with an eye for crossing, Ghoulam will be a solid option at the left-wing position in Conte’s system.
Marcus Alonso has done really well at left wing-back since his move to Chelsea in the summer but with Chelsea likely to be in the Champions League next season, they will need more options. Ghoulam is an experienced player for both club and country and can prove to be an invaluable addition to the Blues.
