As reported in an exclusive by The Sun, Antonio Conte is planning a summer of wheeling and dealing and could pull off some surprising moves in the next transfer window.

What’s the story?

Despite on a march towards the English Premier League title, Antonio Conte is already busy planning next season and is lining up some big moves in and out of the club this summer.

The Sun report that Conte has accepted he may be powerless to resist Thibaut Courtois leaving the club for Real Madrid, but that he will leverage the goalkeeper’s value to bring striker Alvaro Morata to Stamford Bridge.

A striker for a goalkeeper would be a bizarre switch but Conte isn’t finished there. He’s hoping to bring England stopper Joe Hart in from Manchester City to replace the Belgian ‘keeper.

Good business or bad business?

Losing Thibaut Courtois would obviously be a blow to Chelsea’s defensive prowess. The goalkeeper is one of the best in Europe, never mind the Premier League, and has been vital to the Blues success this season.

That said, if losing him is an inevitability due to his desire to move back to Madrid, then bringing in a striker the has worked under Conte and could add significant threat would be a best case scenario.

Alvaro Morata played under the Italian at Juventus and scored 27 goals in 93 appearances for the Serie A giants. He’s kept up a similar scoring rate in his second spell at Real Madrid this season, scoring 9 goals in 26 appearance so far. The Spanish striker offers much more than his goals though and he’d be a fine fit for Conte’s current system at Chelsea.

Replacing Courtois with Joe Hart would be bold given the criticism and high profile errors he has made over the last 18 months. The England goalkeeper is still one of the best around on his day and if Conte can keep his head in the right place and with Hart extra motivated given his treatment at City, it could be an inspired bit of business.

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