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Gossip: Chelsea 'target Van Dijk and Davies in new £150m spree', Liverpool 'want Benzema', Everton 'to offer £45m for Sigurdsson'

Alex Sandro, Tom Davies and Virgil van Dijk are on Chelsea's shopping list it seems
Alex Sandro, Tom Davies and Virgil van Dijk are on Chelsea’s shopping list it seems

Antonio Conte is clearly a man who has worked out that it pays to be pushy. He’s the kind of guy who will complain to the waiter after dinner that his steak was overcooked and then get the entire meal on the house.

The kind of guy who will repeatedly call his broadband provider about his slow upload speeds until they agree to cut his monthly line rental to £2.99 – and send him a £250 Amazon voucher. The kind of guy who will incessantly bemoan the paucity of his title-winning squad until his chairman caves in and gives him more money to spend that any other team in the league – even when one of those teams is Manchester City.

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Having already splashed out £130m on new players so far the summer, the Mirror reports that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is ready to give Conte another £150m to boost his already quite good team.

That grand total of £280m would eclipse the highest-ever transfer window spending by a Premier League team, which was the £218m set by Man City when they signed Benjamin Mendy yesterday.

The names on Conte’s shopping list are familiar, with Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk and Juventus full-back Alex Sandro still said by the Times to be his top targets.

Swansea's Gylfi Sigurdsson is not for sale but wanted by everyone
Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson is not for sale but wanted by everyone

There are others too, with the Sun tipping the Blues to simultaneously launch raids for Internazionale midfielder Antonio Candreva, Swansea striker Fernando Llorente and Everton starlet Tom Davies. It wouldn’t be a proper transfer if Chelsea weren’t trying to buy someone from Everton.

The Toffees are big spenders too these days, and they are still intending to spend very big on Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson, says the Mail. Ronald Koeman is reportedly prepared to spend £45m on the Icelandic midfielder, although the Swans are continuing to demand £50m – presumably because they know this is the kind of transfer window where they’ll get it in the end.

Not to be outdone, Everton’s Merseyside rivals Liverpool are keen on signing Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, says the Mirror. Jurgen Klopp will turn to the Frenchman if he fails to secure his younger, sexier compatriot Kylian Mbappe . The Reds will face competition from Arsenal though, obviously.

Elsewhere, Galatasaray are in talks with the Gunners about signing their Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny for £10m (Metro), Marseille have emerged as front-runners to snap up Celtic striker Moussa Dembele for £20m (Express) and Tottenham’s one attempt to sign someone summer this summer appears to have ended in failure after 19-year-old Argentine defender Juan Foyth rejected them in favour of a move to Paris Saint-Germain (Squawka). Oh well, at least they tried.

@darlingkevin

Who has been the best signing of the summer so far?