Although Diego Costa’s plan to leave Stamford Bridge for the Far East isn’t quite concrete yet, we sure know now that Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is planning to add more firepower in the attacking third.
According to reports, Inter Milan forward Jonathan Biabiany’s agent has revealed that Chelsea had made a last gasp effort to land him last month, but a deal fell through as the time was too short to finalise any sort of deal.
When asked whether there was definite interest from the Blues, agent Davide Bega told Calciomercato, “Yes, I can confirm that. Conte wanted him and personally talked to Jonathan to persuade him to move to Chelsea. The offer, however, was late. They called us on Sunday night and the transfer window was closing two days later. There was no time to finalise a deal.”
Bega also agreed that the player was open for a move to West Ham United and even China although no offer was made. He said, “He didn’t receive any offer from China,’ he added. ‘It could have been a good idea but in the end, nothing concrete happened.”
The 28-year-old French international had joined Inter as a free agent in 2015 and has been nothing more than a reserve option this season. Last season he was given a chance to impress but the right winger could score only once and assist twice in 20 appearances. This season, his outings have only been limited to the Europa League, where he managed to find nothing in 3 appearances before Inter went crashing out of the tournament.
A right winger by nature, Biabiany can also play centrally and came to the fore for his tremendous dribbling abilities. An Inter youth product, Biabiany has spent numerous loan stunts in Italian clubs before Parma finally picked him up in 2015. Apart from Parma, he has been on loan to Sampdoria and Modena FC. After three disappointing seasons with Parma, he was released by the club when Inter took him again. His contract runs up to 2019 but given his lack of chances the club won’t be much keen on holding onto him.
Chelsea had shown interest in Swansea City forward Fernando Llorente, who has previously worked under Conte in Juventus. The Italian boss hasn’t been convinced with new recruit Michy Batshuayi’s effort and wanted a new forward to support Costa up front. Chelsea are top of the league with a 10-point lead with 13 games to go, and whatever be the end result, a new striker is at the top of their priority list this summer.
