Antonio Conte has admitted that Chelsea wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk before the centre-back completed a £75million move to Premier League rivals Liverpool.

Van Dijk became the world's most expensive defender when he moved to Jurgen Klopp's side from Southampton on January 1.

The £75m fee that Liverpool paid to sign the Netherlands international eclipsed the £52m fee that Manchester City tabled to recruit Benjamin Mendy from Monaco last summer.

And Conte, who addressed his defensive issues before the start of the season by signing Antonio Rudiger from Roma and bringing Andreas Christensen back from his two-year loan spell, admits Chelsea wanted Van Dijk because he is a "top defender".

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Conte said of Van Dijk moving to Liverpool: "This is football. This is life.

"For sure he was our target but as you know this is football. We can have a lot of targets but you must be able to reach those targets. The transfer market is not simple for any club."

Van Dijk enjoyed a dream start to life at Liverpool when he headed in the winner against city rivals Everton to send the Reds into the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday.

Liverpool have since sold their talisman Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for an eye-watering fee believed to be worth up to £142m.

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And Conte added: "Liverpool bought Van Dijk to reinforce their defensive line, and I think Van Dijk is a top defender. They spent 85 [75] million euros for this player.

"The same time, they sold very well [Philippe] Coutinho because when you sell a player for this amount of money, and then you have the rest of money to invest, to improve your team.

"But I think the transfer market is not simple especially if there is this amount of money.

"I have great respect for the other teams, for the other managers, because behind every operation there is a programme, [there] is a plan and I have great respect for every manager, every team."