It Was Never Necessary To sell Dzeko – Mauro Baldissoni

Antonio Conte begged “all the people who work in Chelsea” to understand the mistakes that led to Wednesday’s shock 3-0 home loss to Bournemouth, suggesting that his preparations had been compromised by the club’s deadline day transfer dealings.

Asked if he was happy with the club’s business, Conte replied: “It’s not important. I’m not happy [with the result]. The transfer market is not important. Now we have to focus on the work. Players go, players come. It doesn’t change.”

There were suggestions that Roma’s willingness to sell their star striker sprang from a need to raise funds to meet financial fair play requirements, but the club’s general manager Mauro Baldissoni insisted that this was not the case.

“We need to clear things up a bit,” he said in an interview with Radio 24. “It was never necessary to sell any players.

“If an unexpected offer arrives, like it did for Dzeko in January, which can be interesting in terms of its size, and if we could have considered ways of reinvesting that money so as not to weaken the team, then you can consider it.

“If Roma had needed the money from selling Dzeko, clearly we would have favoured this, if the conditions had been right, but the club held its position firmly. We had no rush to speed up these negotiations and we preferred him to stay anyway.

“Edin is a great player and we’re all delighted that he’s stayed.”