Now that UEFA Champions League football has been secured for next season, Antonio Conte is wasting no time with his preparations this summer as he looks to reshuffle his playing squad at Tottenham with a number of arrivals and departures.
The north London club look to have already tied up deals for Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster and Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic upon the expiration of their contracts next month and plans are already in place to add to that, according to the Daily Mail.
And as per the report, Conte has held a recruitment meeting with technical director Fabio Paratici to discuss which players can be sold this summer as he looks to add to his transfer budget.
Spurs owner Joe Lewis has already injected £150 million into Conte’s transfer kitty for this summer but the Italian is determined to add to those funds by selling a number of fringe players who no longer have a future in his side.
Following his meeting with Paratici, the 52-year-old has settled on seven players who could be offloaded over the next few months after they struggled to make an impact in his squad last season, which could see him make some extra cash on top of what he already has to play with.
Tanguy Ndombele, Davinson Sanchez, Harry Winks, Giovani Lo Celso, Steven Bergwijn, Sergio Reguilon and Joe Rodon are among those who face uncertain futures at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with two of those players set to return from loan spells.
Will Antonio Conte be able to sign the majority of his top targets this summer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Ndombele was signed for £55.45m in July 2019 from Lyon, while Lo Celso’s season-long loan deal from Real Betis in August 2019 was made permanent in January 2020. However, after making just nine Premier League appearances in the first half of last season, both players were loaned out for the remainder of the campaign back in January to Lyon and Villarreal, respectively.
Elsewhere, Sanchez and Reguilon have been more regular members of the squad under Conte this season with 48 top flight appearances between them, yet their inconsistent form looks to have finally taken its toll, with both of their futures now hanging in the balance.
Finally, Winks, Bergwijn and Rodon have been fringe players for much of the campaign and although the former has struggled with a long-term injury, the latter two just haven’t reached the required heights this season. That is mainly due to a lack of opportunities under Conte, but that is clearly because the Italian manager simply doesn’t rate them enough to feature them regularly.
Defence has been one of Conte’s major issues this season, despite Cristian Romero, Eric Dier and Ben Davies finally clicking as a solid back three towards the latter stage of the season, but should all three of Sanchez, Reguilon and Rodon leave, then replacements will certainly be needed.
And the Italian has reportedly already got his top two candidates lined up. Inter Milan’s Alessandro Bastoni and Red Bull Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol are at the top of Conte’s defensive shopping list, while Middlesbrough’s Djed Spence is also admired following his impressive campaign in which he helped Nottingham Forest return to the top flight.
But Bastoni brings plenty of experience with him having spent his whole career in Serie A, winning the double with Inter under Conte last year, as well as being part of the Italy side that won Euro 2020, while Gvardiol has burst onto the European scene in 2021-22 after helping Leipzig win their first German Cup.
