Conte keen on Tammy Abraham, Chelsea have clubs on a blacklist
Director Mark Ashton of Bristol City spoke to Bristol Post about the lengths he and the club went to secure prolific goal scorer Tammy Abraham.
"We had an agreement with Chelsea that, if Tammy came out on loan, it would be to Bristol City. We had that one in the drawer by the end of June. We then brought Tammy and his family in, gave them a tour of Bristol and of the training ground and showed him where he would be living.
"But Chelsea had to delay, because Antonio Conte was coming in. Once he was in, he made it very clear that he liked Tammy Abraham. When Tammy went from the Euros (UEFA Under-19 Championships in Germany) straight to the US on tour with Chelsea, the feedback we got from Chelsea's directors was that Conte was keen on him.
"At that stage, we were thinking he might keep him in and not allow us to take him. We kept pushing and the player, his family and his representatives kept pushing. Tammy knew that, if he stayed at Chelsea, his game time would be limited. He wanted to come here and play.
"Eventually, I got an email from Chelsea's board saying Conte had agreed to Tammy coming to us. We already had a deal agreed with Chelsea, so Tammy flew straight to Bristol from the US and we did it all the next day.
"At the end of last season, Lee (Johnson) went to Chelsea's training ground and presented to Michael Emenalo, while I went to Stanford Bridge and met Roman Abramovic's board of directors."
Ashton then goes on to something we have not heard of before. Chelsea have a list of clubs they will no longer be doing loan business with.
"They had tried these arrangements with English clubs before and, in their words, they hadn't worked. They gave me a list of clubs they would not do business with. I asked them to give us Tammy for the season and then judge us on what we do, not what we say. I told them we would show them what we could do and then build a long-term relationship.
"We then did the deal with Chelsea and sorted all of the finances, which were far from straightforward. Then we had to wait for Mr Conte."
