New Inter head coach Antonio Conte has confirmed that he is intending to bring Romelu Lukaku to the club.

Said Conte, “You know very well that I like his play and his passing. When I was coach at Chelsea, I tried to bring him to Chelsea as I thought he was a good player.”

He continued, “I still consider him to be an important player but there is a transfer market when it comes to signing new players and we will see what happens. But for now, Lukaku is still a (Manchester) United player.”

Man U, however, have a £75million price tag on Lukaku, which Inter are currently not willing to meet.

Conte had been speaking at a pre-match press conference for the upcoming International Champions Cup game against Man U at the Singapore National Stadium which will be played this evening.

Working hard for the coming season

Nonetheless, Conte, who will be facing his first league season at Inter, will not let the Lukaku transfer saga derail his plans for the upcoming Serie A season ahead and he reiterated that his team have been working and training hard.

Said Conte, “Our season started ten days ago, and we have had several intensive training sessions because we realise that it is important to not only play, but also to improve our physical conditioning and tactical knowledge. For these reasons, we must continue to work.”

He added, “And today with an important pre-season game against Man U, it is hard to see it as a friendly against a team such as United but so far I am happy to say that our pre-season has been going well and tomorrow we will go out there and the hard work will come to fruition.”

And the head coach also played down the lack of a decent striker at the club. Said Conte, “For sure it will not be easy to play without strikers at the beginning of the season but the transfer market is still open and we are confident that we will sign the players that we need, by then.”

Hard to predict what the season will bring

As well, Conte remained modest about his new club’s expectations for the coming league season.

Said Conte, “On one side, of course we want to win and that is definitely our eventual target, but on the other side, it is hard to predict what will happen or keep the same sort of ambition these days.”

He added “But this whole month, we are working really hard and we hope to try and do what we say we want.”

As the club’s 11th coach in the past nine years, Conte, after all, has the unenviable task of reviving a team that has not won a major trophy in the past eight years, and bringing them some silverware.