Chelsea’s Conte would have felt like this on deadline day: There was no trust – Carragher

That is according to former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher.

The centre-half re-signed for Chelsea on transfer deadline day last summer for a fee of £34million.

Antonio Conte was made to settle for the Brazil international, whose reputation in the Premier League wasn’t the greatest following his challenging first spell.

As the Blues failed to land top targets such as Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Juventus' Giorgio Chiellini, they took a gamble on bringing back Luiz.

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Jamie Carragher says Antonio Conte would have feared trusting David Luiz when he arrived at Chelsea

However, despite being offloaded by Jose Mourinho during his time in charge at Stamford Bridge, the 29-year-old has returned a more mature and furnished player.

But even though Luiz has turned out to be a positive signing, Carragher insists Conte would have been unsure due to the lack of trust shown by his previous managers.

“When you look back at his last two managers during his first spell in London, Rafa Benitez moved him into central midfield as he did not trust him to operate in defence,” Carragher wrote in his Daily Mail column.

“Jose Mourinho had similar mis-givings and readily sold him to Paris Saint-Germain. Both are coaches in Conte's mould.

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Signing Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly was prioritised by Chelsea last summer over David Luiz

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David Luiz has proven to be a key player for Antonio Conte at Chelsea this season

It looked to be a transfer loaded with risk and the feeling was enhanced after his first three games

Jamie Carragher

“So, too, is Unai Emery, who had been appointed by PSG to target the Champions League after lifting the Europa League three times with Sevilla. Yet his first big decision was to sanction Luiz's sale at an £18million loss.

“The feeling was that top managers around the world could not trust the Brazil international and I have no doubt on August 31 that Conte would have felt that way.

“It looked to be a transfer loaded with risk and the feeling was enhanced after his first three games. Chelsea conceded seven goals in that sequence, lost two Premier League games to Liverpool and Arsenal and Luiz was booked in the 4-2 League Cup win at Leicester.

“But then Conte got to work and came up with the system that is propelling Chelsea to the title and has turned Luiz into one of the Premier League's outstanding performers. A measure of his new-found discipline is that his brilliant goal at Liverpool was his first of the year.”

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