Chelsea star not Barcelona-bound, insists Conte

Michael Graham

Eden Hazard is “very happy” at Chelsea and not about to replace Neymar at Barcelona, says Blues boss Antonio Conte.

Since Barcelona lost Neymar in  £200m deal last week, a plethora of players have been linked with the La Liga giants as they seek to replace him.

However, Conte is adamant that player will not be Hazard, partly because Chelsea don’thave a big enough first-team squad to consider sales.

“We are trying to buy the players, not to sell them,” said Conte

“Otherwise the number is always less and we are in trouble.

“These are rumours. Eden is very happy to stay with us and to start the new season.”

When asked about the world-record Neymar deal, Conte was in philosophical mood, although he did rule out Chelsea attempting to pull off any similar deals in the near future.

“It’s an impressive amount of money, £200m. If PSG is able to do this why not?

“For a normal player now you must be ready to spend £40m, £50m. If you want to buy a top player, you must be ready to spend this money.

“Now for us, it’s very important to try to improve our squad, above all under a numerical aspect. We have a small squad.

“And I think only one player is not enough to improve our team. We need more players with, not at top level like Neymar, more players to improve our squad, to improve our quality.”