New Inter Milan manager Antonio Conte breaks silence on Manchester United duo

Inter Milan have appointed former Chelsea boss Antonio Conte as their new head coach. Find out what he had to say about his side’s links with two Manchester United stars.

Antonio Conte has not denied that his club is interested in Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez after being announced as new head coach at Inter Milan.

Lukaku has been linked with a move to the Serie A club this summer, with the Manchester Evening News reporting earlier this week that United are open to selling him to a non-Premier League side.

The Red Devils are also reportedly interested in offloading Alexis Sanchez in the summer transfer window as well, who has disappointed at the club since joining them from Arsenal in January of 2018.

Sitting down with the BBC World Service, Conte was asked about reports linking Lukaku with a move to Internazionale. He replied:

"“Have Inter met with Lukaku? No, that’s not right, but in this moment there is a sporting director to talk about this and do this question about the transfer market, about the players.”“But I repeat: now we are very focused to do the first step and to work together.”"

When asked to comment about Sanchez, the Italian laughed and replied:

"“Yeah but you’re talking about the transfer market. You have to talk to the sporting director about this topic.”"

Conte is obviously cautious to say anything concrete about Inter’s pursuit of Lukaku and Sanchez in order to avoid upsetting either the players or their club.

More from Red Devil Armada

• Aaron Wan Bissaka out for ‘several weeks’ with injury
• Manchester United break an unwanted record after Brighton loss
• Sofyan Amrabat set to miss game against Brighton
• Preview: Manchester United vs Brighton – What you need to know
• Jadon Sancho set to train away from first team squad

Nevertheless, his comments suggest that he is aware that his club is being linked with a move for the two United players, as he did not dismiss them right away as managers tend to do when talking about another club’s players.

Should Lukaku and Sanchez indeed move to Inter or elsewhere this summer, United could use the funds obtained from these transfers to improve the weaker areas of their side, such as centre-back and right-back.

Reports suggest that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could get rid of as many as 14 players in his plan to overhaul the United squad, with Antonio Valencia and Ander Herrera already having been announced as departing this summer.