Antonio Conte fears that Manchester United and Manchester City are out to ‘kill’ Chelsea by signing Alexis Sanchez this January and has urged the club to make a move for the forward.
United have reportedly submitted a £25million offer to sign Sanchez and are understood to have overtaken City in the race to land the 29-year-old Chile international.
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Chelsea were heavily linked with Sanchez in the summer transfer window but have cooled their interest in recent weeks, with the board refusing to match the attacker’s £400,000-a-week wage demands.
The Telegraph suggests Conte has ‘recommended’ Sanchez once again as the Italian grows increasingly frustrated with the Blues’ lack of action in the transfer market.
‘I think it is a good investment,’ Conte responded when asked about the speculation surrounding Sanchez.
‘We are talking about a top player and you can buy him for a price not so high. The amount is around £20 million. Maybe a normal price for Alexis Sánchez is €80-90million. This is my opinion.’
Conte was spotted in conversation with the Chilean prior to Chelsea’s Carabao Cup clash with Arsenal on Wednesday evening.
Asked what was said, the Chelsea boss replied: ‘I said hello. He’s a great player and knows very well in my first season in Juventus we tried to buy him from Udinese and then he decided to go to Barcelona.
‘He knows well my admiration for him and this was a good chance to say hello to him.’
The Italian believes Chelsea’s rivals are trying to ‘kill’ them by stealing Sanchez from Arsenal.
He said: ‘I understand that the other teams try to kill the other teams and to anticipate the situation, and this is the real transfer market – not to wait until the last moment to buy the players.
‘If you anticipate the transfer market you become stronger and you make the other team weak.
‘And I have great respect for the plan of the others because everyone tries to kill you.’
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