Victor Moses: Still Conte’s Trusted Tool

Victor Moses: Still Conte’s Trusted Tool

After several loan stints and when it was almost obvious he would never star for Chelsea in a competitive game again, the arrival of Antonio Conte as the Blues Manager changed the whole narratives for Victor Moses. The Italian saw what no previous Chelsea manager saw in the Nigerian and for two years Conte was at the Bridge, Moses was a regular figure. All that changed with the arrival of Maurizio Sarri as the AFCON gold medalist was once again sent on loan to Turkey. Conte in his Inter Milan’s revival still sees Moses as an important tool in reuniting with his old reliable 

Former Super Eagles winger Victor Moses has joined Inter Milan on loan with an option of a permanent move. The 29-year-old Moses has undergone a medical with the club and will join them for the rest of the season.

Moses’ reconciliation with Antonio Conte is now completed with the utility player in Italy to securing a loan move to Inter Milan.

Videos of Moses in Milan surfaced on social media on Tuesday morning as he underwent a medical with the high-flying Serie A side.

He joined on loan for the rest of the season with a view to making the deal permanent for £8.5 million in the summer.

He had initially arrived in the city on Monday night, having cut short his 18-month loan spell at Turkish side Fenerbahce.

Moses is currently deemed surplus to requirements at Chelsea and had spent the past 12 months plying his trade with Fenerbahce.

However, he is set to be reunited with Conte at Inter after playing a key role in the Italian’s 2016-17 Premier League title triumphs while in charge of Chelsea.

In his press conference on Monday, Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard said: “On Victor Moses; he’s obviously coming back from his loan with a view to going elsewhere, and those talks are ongoing as well.”

The 29-year-old is set to become the fourth Premier League player to move to the Serie A club this season, following Ashley Young, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez’s transfers from Manchester United.

The Nigeria international whose deal at Stamford Bridge is due to expire in June 2020, arrived at Chelsea in 2012 from Wigan Athletic and since then has enjoyed loan spells at Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham.

“Coaches come with different styles and formation and if a player could not fit into a particular formation does not mean he’s not good. The fact that Victor Moses did not fit into Mourinho’s style does not mean he’s not a good player. Now that a coach whose formation Moses fits into is now in charge, he is getting enough playing time,” Mutiu Adepoju said in an interview with THISDAY then.

In a telephone chat with THISDAY, former Nigerian international Paul Okoku said Moses “is reaping the hard work and effort” at improving his game while on loan.

“It was not that Conte just woke up and decided on Moses. He had come to trust him during their time at Chelsea. Conte definitely had watched him play during his loan spell and knew he suits his style of play. Moreover, Moses too had put in so much effort to improve his game and that is what he is enjoying,” Okoku said.

“I played as a wing-back a lot during my career, particularly when I was younger in the mid-to-late 1990s when that system was least popular in the Premier League. I used to enjoy it because, like Moses, it suited my game. Like him, I was more of an attacker than a defender and wing-backs have the freedom to get forward when they want.

“You have to be disciplined defensively and decide when to join the attack or hold back, but you have the freedom of the touchline and the ability to impose yourself on the game far more than you can as a normal winger. By timing your runs, you can come from deep with a head of steam and burst into great positions – the sort of thing that Moses does when he used his power and pace to great effect,” Conte said.

Moses has spent the past year on loan at Fenerbahce after falling out of favour at Chelsea

He featured 34 times in the league that term, scoring three times.

Overall the pair worked together at Stamford Bridge for two seasons before Conte was sacked just two months after the end of the 2017-18 campaign. The last season saw them win the FA Cup too.

Conte will be hoping the arrival of Moses can aid Inter’s title challenge as they look to usurp Juventus as champions of Italy. Juve (51 points) currently sit four points clear of second-placed Inter (47 points) after 20 matches apiece.

Moses was born in Lagos to a pastor. When he was 11, his parents were among thousands killed by rioters. A week later with his travel being paid for by relatives, he came to Britain as an asylum seeker. He attended Stanley Technical High School, now known as the Harris Academy, in South Norwood. Scouted playing football in the local Tandridge League for Cosmos 90 FC Crystal Palace approached him, with the club’s Selhurst Park stadium just streets away from his school.

Moses first came to prominence at 14 after scoring 50 goals for Palace’s under-14s side. Playing for three years at both Whitgift and Palace, Moses scored over 100 goals as well as helping Whitgift win many School Cups, including a National Cup where he scored all five goals in the final against Healing School of Grimsby at the Walkers Stadium, Leicester.

Related Articles