Chelsea eye Drinkwater to fill Matic void
CHELSEA are interested in signing Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater, with manager Antonio Conte keen to bolster his options after Nemanja Matic completed his £40million move to Manchester United yesterday. Drinkwater, who would boost Chelsea’s homegrown contingent, signed a four-year contract at Leicester and is key to Craig Shakespeare’s plans. Though the 27-year-old would be interested in a move to the champions, he is conscious of ending up with a peripheral role as Conte aims to pair Tiemoue Bakayoko with N’Golo Kante in his midfield engine room. England midfielder Drinkwater is on a list of targets that include Bayern Munich’s Renato Sanches, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at Arsenal and Everton’s Ross Barkley. Matic has vowed to help United win the Premier League title after being reunited with Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford. The Serbia midfielder, a key part of Mourinho’s 2015 success at Stamford Bridge, said: ‘I think this squad is ready, because it’s more mature and they have already worked with Jose one year and they know what they have to do. I am sure we can do many things this season.’ Matic, 28, had been at Chelsea for three years and missed only three league games last season. But he told MUTV he had no hesitation in signing again for Mourinho. ‘I wanted to train with Jose again,’ he said. ‘When you have a coach like him and a club like Manchester you don’t need to think about it, so my decision was very easy. He is a great coach and when I worked with him before he got the best from me and I improved a lot.’ Matic, who had not been training with the Chelsea first team, hopes to be fit for the European Super Cup clash with Real Madrid in Skopje next Tuesday.