Antonio Conte believes Chelsea bought a bargain in £56m Alvaro Morata as he compares striker to Harry Kane

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Louise Thomas

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Antonio Conte believes Chelsea bought Alvaro Morata on the cheap from Real Madrid as he backs him to have the sort of impact at Stamford Bridge that Harry Kane has had at Tottenham.

The Spaniard looked like he was set for a move to Old Trafford for the majority of the summer only for Manchester United to sign Romelu Lukaku instead, paving the way for Morata to finally move to Chelsea for an initial £56m.

The 24-year-old is in line to make his full Chelsea debut on Sunday against Tottenham at Wembley on Sunday having come off the bench in the season’s curtain raiser against Burnley last weekend.

He made a positive start to life in west London with a goal and an assist despite that defeat and Conte insisted that given today market – where Liverpool are rejecting £110m+ offers for Philippe Coutinho – Morata is a bargain signing for the Blues.

“How much money we paid for Morata? Maybe £56m could be a good price for Morata and for this transfer market,” said Conte.

“If you remember, Morata didn't play regularly with Real Madrid last season because he was behind [Karim] Benzema.

“Usually when you don't play regularly you lose sometimes your performance, sometimes your quality in your physical condition. You need a bit of time to recover this. We want Morata to play regularly for Chelsea. My choices don't depend on the cost of money.

“We can spend a lot of money for one player and then I put him on the bench, because I'm seeing this player is not ready to play. There is not a relation to see him start a game.”

After signing Morata, Conte spoke publically of how Spurs striker Kane would have been is ideal signing but he tried to clarify those comments by insisting Morata can have a similar impact to the Englishman.

“Morata is a young player,” he added. “He can stay in this club for many years to become a fantastic striker for this club. Recently I was only told that I have admiration for Kane, for this player, but I think it's normal. It doesn't mean that I don't like my players.

“I can show admiration for another player. My only intention was to underline the great job Pochettino is doing. Harry Kane wasn't a great player before, and now he is.”