The Italian manager, who guided Chelsea to a Premier League and an FA Cup title during his two-year stint at Stamford Bridge, has revealed he spoke to Romelu Lukaku and Virgil van Dijk about signing for the Blues.

In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Conte said, "Guardiola is the best coach in the world. And then when you can match the best coach in the world with a club that can back you and can invest to bring in important players to improve the team every season because they want to stay at the top of the world, then it is very, very difficult to compete at the same level.

"My history says that I always arrived at my clubs in a difficult situation with problems. I always build. After my first season at Chelsea, when we won the title, we could have become dominant in England. We spoke with (Romelu) Lukaku and (Virgil) van Dijk, and with those two important players we could have changed the situation."

In his maiden season in England, the 54-year-old competed against managers like Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola - whom the Italian considers as the best manager in the world - to win the Premier League. The Blues' performance, though, dropped drastically in the subsequent season as they finished fifth in the league and missed out on a Champions League slot which led to the coach's sacking.