The Premier League has now come down to its business end for the current season, with Chelsea leading the race for the title. The Blues have been brilliant in every department throughout the season and will look to repeat their great run next term as well.
Antonio Conte is already looking to bring in players who have been performing well for the last few seasons, both from the Premier League and Europe. One such player is Southampton defender Virgil Van Dijk, who is being pursued by Chelsea for quite some time now.
Chelsea is looking to rope in the 25-year-old in order to get someone capable enough to replace the ex-England centre-back John Terry, who has already announced his departure from Stamford Bridge at the end of the current season. The Dutch defender is currently under treatment for an injury that he picked up a few months ago. However, Chelsea is still looking to bring in the youngster once his current club Southampton let go of him.
Reportedly, the South Coast club has been looking to keep hold of their prized possession, but speculations are catching wind that the Dutch defender might leave the club for Stamford Bridge in the next season with repeated interests from the Blues to bag him. However, Van Dijk is available to Chelsea for a huge price of 50 million in the next season.
Antonio Conte, Chelsea’s Italian coach, has been looking to repeat the same feat as his fellow Italian Carlo Ancelotti, who won the Premier League title in the very first year of his tenure with Chelsea. The inspirational Italian has been playing with the 3-4-3 system of late, in which Virgil Van Dijk might be included and can play a very important role.
The London club is looking to bring in the Dutch defender from Southampton along with the Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton in a move to strengthen the side. Antonio Conte is looking to revamp the side amongst speculations about Chelsea’s talismanic player Eden Hazard leaving the side to join Real Madrid next season.
However, rival clubs like Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City also look to be in pursuit of the highly rated defender, wishing to land him in order to recover their defence from a rather tumultuous situation in the next season. Merseyside club Everton is also said to be in for a bid to take the currently injured Dutch defender to Goodison Park. Their Dutch coach Ronald Koeman is a big fan of his compatriot defender for a very long time.
