Antonio Conte "back in" for English midfielder that he tried to sign for Chelsea 12-months ago?

According to various reports, Antonio Conte has told Leicester City that he will not be held to ransom and pay more than £30m for midfielder Danny Drinkwater, a player he tried to sign last summer. 

We all saw the first reports of a move by Chelsea to sign Danny Drinkwater from Leicester and, if we are honest, wondered why? I mean no disrespect to Danny himself at all when I say that because I am referring to the fact that it seemed to have come from nowhere. It now become apparent that Conte is a big fan of the hard-working and industrious midfielder who he had tried to sign last summer upon his arrival at Chelsea.

Think back to Leicester's Premier League winning season, it had caught the attention of the football world as Claudio Ranieri's team performed miracles at 5000-1 claiming their first title. The coverage of their achievement and their developing season was huge and screened worldwide with one person in particular taking note being Antonio Conte.

Rumour has it that Conte became a real admirer of how N'Golo Kante and Drinkwater dove-tailed in the Leicester midfield and developed an impressive partnership which became the foundation of their success that season. When he arrived at Chelsea the deal was done for Kante but the manager also wanted Drinkwater which was rejected after his approach was made. Twelve months on with Ranieri gone and Leicester having fought for Premier League survival last term, Antonio Conte believes that he can finally get his man but will refuse to pay over the odds to sign him.

So what of Drinkwater? Is he Chelsea standard? Of course he is in my view and proved just how instrumental he could be next to Kante. As I have said he is industrious in the heart of the midfield and with Nemanja Matic gone it's clear that we need to bolster our options in that area. The fact that he is English is also vitally important.

Being honest the ideal partnership in that area this season is Bakayoko and Kante as stated here, but if we did manage to sign Drinkwater, I would not write him off making an impact here. My fear is that he would suffer the same fate as Scott Parker here who was of the same mould back in the day.

What do you think of Antonio's move for Drinkwater for a second time? Is he someone that you would like to see at Chelsea?

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