Brazilian Star Reveals Summer Talks With Man Utd as Chelsea Refuse to Negotiate Sale

Chelsea forward Willian has admitted that league rivals Manchester United made an approach to sign him earlier this summer, but that the Premier League champions refused to do business.

Speaking to Goal, the Brazilian star admitted that he was very happy playing under Antonio Conte at Chelsea and that he will continue to do so for the season to come, but that he also held a good relationship with current United manager Jose Mourinho. 

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Chelsea have sold Nemanja Matic to United this summer, a move which Conte has since described as "a great loss", but did not negotiate for Willian - who revealed that United had approached his agent over a potential transfer. 

He said: "There were a few conversations with my agent. I worked with Mourinho and I became his friend as well. He likes me a lot and I like him a lot as a coach and as a person. He has put his trust in me and in my work, and I was very grateful to him. 

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"Manchester came to me, they talked with my agent, but nothing happened, because Chelsea would not negotiate me in any way and I'm very happy at Chelsea."

Willian also took time to compare the two coaches, but revealed that he was happy continue playing under the Italian.

He added: "They are very different. Everyone has their way of working. Mourinho is a coach who likes more the ball practice, works the ball possession and makes short games. Conte likes to work the tactical and the physical part. Every coach has his way of working. Mourinho is a fantastic coach and won everything wherever he went.

"Conte is a fantastic coach too, because he won everything at Juventus and has already won the Premier League in his first year with Chelsea. Each one has his merits.

"[Conte] is a coach who works hard every day, works a lot of tactics and the physical part. In the last season, he transformed our team when he changed the formation to 3-4-3. We managed to assimilate very well what he asked us in the training sessions and things worked out."