Chelsea transfer news: Antonio Conte vows not to waste £60m Oscar windfall as he weighs up youth options

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James Benge30 December 2016

Chelsea will not spend their £60m windfall from the sale of Oscar for the sake of spending it in the January market, according to Antonio Conte.

Shanghai SIPG’s £60m fee for the Brazilian midfielder, a fringe player under Conte, has left Chelsea flush with cash heading into the January window, where the Blues targets include PSG midfielder Marco Verratti and Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez.

Conte is also keen to recruit a centre-back and has Virgil van Dijk of Southampton near the top of his wishlist, though his experience of a summer window where he was not able to bring in the defender he craved until deadline day, when David Luiz joined from Paris St Germain.

The January window is likely to be even more difficult for Chelsea and Conte suggested that if he couldn’t find the right player over the coming month he would not spend any of the £60m he has been promised.

“In January it’s always very difficult to buy because I think that every team plans to keep their best players, not sell them,” Conte said. “With the club we are thinking about the best way to face the rest of the season, we are seeing our situation, our squad and we’ll take the best decisions.

“As I said before the January window is not easy.

“We sold Oscar, we have money to spend but it’s important to spend money in the right way. To spend money only to spend money I don’t like.

“I’d prefer to buy players who can adapt to our system, come in and help us. But it’s not easy to find this type of player in January, we’re working on it.”

Conte has shown a willingness to dip into Chelsea’s youth squad if he is unable to find a quality addition in the transfer window and has given the likes of Nathaniel Chalobah, Ola Aina and Ruben Loftus-Cheek first team opportunities throughout the season.

With both Kenedy and Charly Musonda having returned to Stamford Bridge from disappointing loan spells at Watford and Real Betis Conte has the numbers to weather injury storms and will now assess whether his youngsters could make the grade.

“At the moment Kenedy and Musonda are back because they didn’t play a lot,” Conte added. “For this reason I think it’s important they stay with us to evaluate the best situation for them and the team.

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“January is not easy, with the club we are talking about this. We have a lot of young players in our squad and I trust them, in Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] and Chalo[bah] and also we recovered Zouma. Then Musonda, Kenedy. We are talking players of 20, 21, 19 years.

“It’s important to work with this type of player and try to find the right solution at home. Then if it’s not possible to look around and find the right solution.”

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