Spotted: Antonio Conte allegedly met with his first Chelsea signing in Roma on Tuesday

Antonio Conte was named the new Chelsea manager earlier this year, but that hasn’t been the only reason his name has been on the Italian and English newspapers. Conte, Italy’s national team manager, allegedly met with A.S. Roma star midfielder Radja Nainggolan on Tuesday night in the Grand Hotel on Via Veneto in the Italian Capital.

Reports from SportMediaset claim that Conte and Nainggolan met around 11:30pm local time on the eve of Nainggolan’s 28th birthday. Although the player quickly dismissed the story through his Twitter account, the story still made Italian newspapers and slowly, but surely crept to English news as well.

Conte also dismissed the story, but the two men were in Rome at the same time, after all, Nainggolan does play for A.S. Roma and Conte is the boss of Italy’s national team. There is no real indication that they both met, however Chelsea has been after Nainggolan since last summer.

Negotiations between Chelsea and Roma fell out after the Italian team valued Nainggolan at  €40m (£31.5m) while The Blues are only willing to pay €30m (£23.6m). Conte is known to be a huge fan of the Belgian international, and Nainggolan would be a perfect fit for the EPL as he is a very strong and skilled player who can play many positions in the midfield.