Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has insisted that he was never interested in signing Celtic’s Moussa Dembele in the January transfer window, but admits that the club did try to sign Craig Gordon from the Bhoys.
With Bournemouth slapping in a bid for Asmir Begovic and the goalkeeper wanting to leave the club, Chelsea were in the market for a custodian going into Tuesday’s deadline day.
They slapped in a couple of bids for Celtic number one Gordon, but the Scottish champions refused to sell the Scotland international and Chelsea didn’t allow Begovic to leave for the Cherries.
Celtic striker Dembele was also heavily linked with a move to Chelsea on deadline day, but Conte stressed that he never asked for the French striker.
However, he did admit that Chelsea wanted to sign Gordon as Begovic was angling for a move to Bournemouth but they had to back off as Celtic were not interested in doing business.
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Conte said in a press conference earlier today: “For Dembele, I never talked to the club about the player.
“For Gordon we tried; we tried to help Asmir Begovic, to satisfy his need to go and play every game.
“Gordon was one of the goalkeepers in the list; we tried but when they told us it’s not possible, we finished.”
