Conte’s so keen on Baka at Inter
TIEMOUE BAKAYOKO is heading back to Milan to hook up with Inter - after being binned by AC.
Former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is about to take over as Inter manager and wants to link up again with the on-loan Blues star (above). Inter would pay Chelsea £5m as a loan fee. NIALL QUINN says Sunderland’s 1998 Wembley heartbreak was the spur for their top-seven Premier League finishes. Former Republic of Ireland centre-forward Quinn (left) and Kevin Phillips (below) forged one of the best little-and-large double acts since the Krankies as the Black Cats overcame the trauma of their shoot-out tear-jerker against Charlton. Quinn, who said Phillips’ prolific goal poaching “put five years on my career,” admitted: “It’s still rattling around there in the back of my mind, 21 years later, but probably not for the reasons most people would expect.
“After the game, as gut-wrenching and heart-rending as the result was, to a man the dressing room got together and we challenged each other to come back the following year.
“And we were better the next year, much better. We ran away with the Championship title with 105 points, and it would have been more but we went on the beer for the last two months because we had it won by March.
“But the seeds of that recordbreaking season were sown with the play-off defeat against Charlton, so I don’t remember it only for negative reasons.
“And it was a turning point for Mickey Gray, whose penalty miss in the shoot-out proved decisive, because he was in a terrible way afterwards.
“But he came back the next season and was magnificent – he became an England international
while still playing in the Championship. “So this great game in 1998 – and it was a great game, regardless of who won – led to other things. When we got to the Premier League, we were stronger and ready for it, which might not have been the case if we had beaten Charlton.”