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Chelsea transfer news: Antonio Conte chasing reunion with £38m Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal

Chelsea not willing to meet asking price for Radja Nainggolan and have turned attention to Chilean

ANTONIO CONTE wants a reunion with Arturo Vidal at Stamford Bridge.

Conte's top target had been Radja Nainggolan but the Italian was not prepared to pay the £51.5million that Roma wanted for the Belgian midfielder.

Antonio Conte is seeking a reunion with Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal
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Antonio Conte is seeking a reunion with Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo VidalCredit: Getty Images
 Conte has plenty of cash to spare after the £60m sale of Oscar to China
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Conte has plenty of cash to spare after the £60m sale of Oscar to ChinaCredit: EPA

Instead, Conte has turned his attention to Vidal - with whom he shared a great relationship at Juventus.

The Italian will move quickly for the Chilean as he seeks to continue his assault on the Premier League.

Buoyed by the massive payout after selling Oscar for £60m, the Chelsea boss will lodge an initial offer of around £34m.

But Bayern are likely to reject that and will hold out for closer to £40m.

Conte can be confident of luring Vidal to Stamford Bridge, if a deal can be reached with the German giants.

The Italian was the man to take Vidal to Juventus from Bayer Leverkusen during his highly successful reign from 2011 to 2014.

In three years under Conte, Vidal became one of the world's best midfielders.

 Chelsea were not willing to meet Roma's £51.5m asking price for Radja Nainggolan
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Chelsea were not willing to meet Roma's £51.5m asking price for Radja NainggolanCredit: Getty Images

They won three Serie A titles together, while Vidal was named Juventus player of the Year in 2013 and named in the Serie A Team of the Year in 2013 and 2014.

Speaking on speculation in March this year Vidal declared that he would go to war with Conte.

Vidal said: "If I go to war I would take Conte with me - we will see what happens."

Conte later replied: "Arturo Vidal said he'd take me to war with him? I'd take Vidal too.

"He's an amazing player. I must admit at Juve, I found him hard to fit in.

"In my head, I wanted to play a 4-2-4 and 4-4-2, but seeing the intensity of Vidal getting up and down the pitch, I switched to 4-3-3 which then transformed into 3-5-2.

"He has extraordinary physical and technical attributes, if I get to coach him a little more it'd be fantastic. I want him on all my teams."

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