Antonio Conte wants Nemanja Matic sale money to be invested in landing Chelsea's next signing

Antonio Conte wants Chelsea to immediately reinvest the money they are set to earn from the sale of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United and strengthen the Blues' squad.

The Italian is facing a shortage of quality first-team players after allowing a number of players to leave during the ongoing summer transfer window and in January earlier this year.

Nathan Ake, Asmir Begovic, Bertrand Traore, Christian Atsu and Nathaniel Chalobah have been sold while John Terry and Dominic Solanke left on free transfers to join Aston Villa and Liverpool respectively. In January, Conte sanctioned moves for Oscar, John Mikel Obi and Branislav Ivanovic.

Diego Costa and Matic have been exiled from the first-team squad and are waiting to complete their moves away from Stamford Bridge. The former has been linked with a move to Atletico Madrid and AC Milan, while the latter is keen on a move to Old Trafford.

The aforementioned duo's potential exit in the coming weeks will make it 12 first-team players that have been allowed to leave in 2017. Conte has made it clear that he wants to make a number of additions this summer, but has so far completed just four signings with the season opener just 11 days away.

Willy Caballero, Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata have joined the Premier League champions for a combined fee of around £140m ($183m) and the Italian coach is keen to further bolster his squad before the end of the campaign. The manager is facing the prospect of starting the season without a number of key first-team players with Eden Hazard and Bakayoko still injured.

Conte has made strengthening the wing-back positions a priority after bringing in additions to bolster his forward line, midfield and central defence and has been linked with a number of players. Chelsea were said to be in the race to sign Real Madrid's Danilo and AS Monaco's Benjamin Mendy, but both players chose to join Manchester City.

The west London club have been on the trail of Juventus left-back Alex Sandro, while Inter Milan's Antonio Candreva is also on the manager's radar owing to his ability to play at right wing-back despite being a midfielder. The former is valued at £61m by the Turin giants, while the latter has been deemed not for sale.

According to the Mirror, Conte wants the Chelsea hierarchy to use the funds generated by the sale of Matic to help secure his primary targets before the start of the campaign. Apart from the duo, Virgil van Dijk is also said to be on the Italian's radar but Southampton are unwilling to sell their skipper.