There was a sense of symmetry in the fact Antonio Conte was asked about Chelsea’s failed pursuit of Roma midfielder Radja Nainggolan in between complaining that his squad is too “thin” to cope with injuries.

Conte is once again making no secret of his frustration over Chelsea’s failure to add more players to the squad that won last season’s Premier League title, as the Blues attempt to bounce back from two successive defeats when they face Roma in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Alvaro Morata will return to lead Chelsea’s attack, but Conte is without N’Golo Kante, Victor Moses and Danny Drinkwater, and may well deploy David Luiz as an extra midfielder to try to help negate the effect of the spate of injuries.

But the realisation for Conte that this is a very different Chelsea from the one he perhaps hoped he might be taking charge of actually arrived last summer, when a meeting with Nainggolan proved to be a wasted dinner bill.

Prior to formally starting work as Chelsea head coach and the European Championship finals, which was his swansong as Italy’s national coach, Conte met Nainggolan at the Grand Hotel in Rome with the express intention of making the midfielder his first signing.