What’s the story?
A report by Spanish Outlet, AS claims that Antonio Conte is out in the transfer market and has been monitoring Swansea City striker Fernando Llorente. The report says that the Italian has not been impressed by Belgian player Michy Batshuayi’s performances for the club, who has scored just once in his last 11 appearances for the Blues.
Also Read: Transfer Rumour: Manchester City duelling Chelsea for Sevilla midfielder Steven N’Zonzi
According to the AS report, the Italian firmly believes that the Swansea striker will be the perfect player to provide a backup option to Diego Costa. The manager has made his aspirations clear to club owner Roman Abramovic about snapping the forward from the Welsh club.
In case you didn’t know...
Llorente had spent two seasons under Conte from 2013 to 2015 at Juventus and the Italian is perfectly aware of the forward’s capabilities. The Italian manager will definitely know the pros and cons if the move does materialise towards the end. In his time at Juventus, Llorente managed to score 27 goals in 92 appearances, winning the Serie A thrice.
Llorente will be turning 32 in February and has loads of experience, having spent time in La Liga, Serie A and the Premier League. The player is known for his physical style of play but is not the most mobile forward around. However, he is a physical presence in the box, is a great header of the ball and can be very useful in a role that needs him to hold up the ball.
The heart of the matter
Llorente has performed pretty well this season in the Premier League and has been one of the good performers for the Swansea team which has otherwise had an extremely bad campaign till now. The striker has managed to score 6 times in 15 games for Swansea City but has still not cemented his place for good in the first team.
The Welsh club are in a managerial crisis at the moment after they sacked another manager. American manager Bob Bradley was sacked earlier this week, making him the 2nd managerial sacking for Swansea this season, after showing Italian manager Francesco Guidolin the door.
What next?
If the transfer does pan out, it would be more or less the end of Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi who will have to compete with two strikers to get even a single minute of play. This would definitely stunt the youngster's growth and he would certainly want a move out as well.
At the same time, Chelsea would love to have three strikers which will provide Conte enough depth to rotate from next season, since they will in all likeliness compete in the Champions League again next year.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Llorente will definitely be unhappy with the recent developments at the club and might want a way out. However, if the player is looking at getting regular game time, that may turn out to be a huge problem at Chelsea. Diego Costa has been performing extremely well for the Blues and Llorente will play second fiddle at the club if Costa keeps up his form.
At the end of the day, it will be up to Llorente to decide whether he would sacrifice regular game time at the cost of joining an extremely ambitious club that will regularly challenge for trophies.
