Antonio Conte has issued a firm response to criticism of Chelsea's lack of transfer activity by insisting the club is ready spend big on the right players.
Chelsea have only managed to secure two targets for Conte so far in Michy Batshuayi and N'Golo Kante and have been outspent by rivals Manchester United and Manchester City.
The 47-year-old has previously criticised the "crazy" transfer market but admitted on Friday that the Blues could splash out in order to improve their defence.
"No I am not uncomfortable [with spending large amounts of money]," Conte told the media at Cobham. "I don't like to pay a lot of money unless a player deserves [that you] pay the money, then it is right.
"I think it is right to pay the right price. Not £20 or 30 million more than the value because the money is not mine, I don’t think it is right. It is crazy because of the prices, you have seen that in this moment it is very difficult to buy.
"I think that also you could ask for a player and it is possible they could ask for £50m, £55m even. It is incredible and for this reason I said it is a crazy, crazy market. It is very difficult to move in this market with these prices and these conditions, very difficult."
Chelsea have been working to sign Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly all summer and Nikola Maksimovic and Ricardo Rodriguez have recently emerged as further defensive targets. They are also looking to sign a back-up goalkeeper and a striker.
Arsenal and Tottenham have also struggled to match the spending power of the Manchester clubs and Conte agreed that selling clubs are demanding higher fees from English sides as a result of the Premier League's record-breaking new television deal.
"We must be patient," he added. "Not only for Chelsea, but I have also seen that for the other clubs that it is a difficult market. But this is a real situation and we must handle this situation in a real way. If we can improve this squad then we will do."
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