Antonio Conte has told Chelsea that he wants Leonardo Bonucci or Virgil van Dijk to bolster his team’s defence next season.

Reports from Italy claim Bonucci may be allowed to leave Juventus this summer with Conte tracking the 30-year-old, while Chelsea remain interested in Van Dijk and could try to take advantage of Southampton’s fall-out with Liverpool.

Bonucci has been a target of Conte ever since he took over as head coach at Chelsea last year and the Italian has been given encouragement that Juve may be willing to do business.

But Conte will need to convince owner Roman Abramovich and the Chelsea board to break club protocol to sanction a deal worth £50million and a lucrative long-term contract for a man who celebrated his 30th birthday at the start of last month.

Chelsea have a long-standing policy of only handing out one-year contracts to players over the age of 30 who are already at the club, as John Terry and Frank Lampard have previously discovered.