Chelsea’s offer of £17m for Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio has been dismissed, according to reports.
However, the club have not lost faith in their ability to lure the 31-year old away from the Juventus stadium, and it has been reported that Antonio Conte is willing and ready to splash up to £25m to add the player to the squad at Stamford Bridge.
Marchisio’s career started at Juventus and has been there ever since, with the exception of a season-long loan spell at Empoli, and is closing in on 400 appearances for the club but he has gotten frustrated with the little opportunity he has gotten to be on the pitch this season.
The midfielder has made 15 Serie A appearances this season – the lowest since he made his debut for the Juventus first-team in the 2006-07 season – with Massimilliano Allegri preferring to use Hteernanes, Sami Khedira and Miralem Pjanić in the central park.
Conte is familiar with the player as he has coached him for three seasons during the time he spent managing at Turin and the Sun reported that the manager has not been discouraged that his first offer of £17m was rejected by his former club and he is ready to press on.
The media outlet also claim that Allegri is willing to sell Marchisio because he needs to raise funds from the sale of players before he can have enough freedom in the transfer market to purchase his own target.
Juventus have been continuously linked with Fiorentina forward Bernardeshi as of late, while Monaco’s Fabino and Southampton’s Dusan Tadic are also believed to be Allegri’s priority this summer.
Marchisio was a consistent performer under Antonio Conte for both Juventus and the Italian national side and would be partnered in the central midfield with N’Golo Kante should he find himself at the Bridge next season.
A box-to-box midfielder who can discern the game perfectly, Marchisio was utilized more in a deep-lying playmaker role by Conte and is also good at taking set-piece.