It’s been a less than optimal summer for Chelsea FC, but there is still plenty of time to get things right, transfer window wise. The summer window doesn’t close until Sept, so the west London club has a few weeks to sign a couple more players.
Some of Chelsea’s preseason friendly results have left a lot to be desired, and while those are only exhibitions, you still don’t want to see that. No time to really ruminate on it now though, as the matches will start counting for real in a few days, when the Blues take on good old friend Frank Lampard and Everton this weekend. We’ll preview that later, in the meantime, let’s talk Chelsea transfer rumors.
We already did one collection of Chelsea transfer rumors, and you can view those over at this link.
We start with Leicester City center back Wesley Fofana, who the Blues are strongly pursuing, according to The Athletic.
(Sky Sports are reporting the same)
Leicester reportedly value Fofana at around $100 million, and that seems like a pretty high price to pay for the 21-year-old Frenchman. Especially so when you consider that he missed most of this past season after breaking his leg in the preseason. Chelsea have a great relationship with Leicester, having signed N’Golo Kante and Ben Chilwell from the Midlands club in recent years.
No matter what the final transfer fee will be, Fofana won’t come cheap, as he only recently signed a two-year contract extension at Leicester.
Chelsea really need defenders this summer though, as Kalidou Koulibaly is their only inbound in this position group. They have two outbounds, with Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger moving over on Bosman transfers to Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Another target for Stamford Bridge, is Inter Milan right back Denzel Dumfries. The 26-year-old Dutch international only joined Inter last summer, and he’s found some success there already. Maybe it’s time for a new challenge already?
With top target Jules Kounde choosing Barcelona instead, and the future of Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso very much in doubt, we could see a major shakeup in the Chelsea back line this August. So get ready for that!
Blues boss Thomas Tuchel has been public about his frustrations with his current squad (and who can blame him?), and no doubt the potential sellers to Chelsea will prey upon that, and thus hike up the price. There isn’t all that much time left for Tuchel and company to find the type of options, in this transfer market, who slot in well to the 3-4-2-1 system
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and he co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast, part of Edge of the Crowd Network. Follow him and the website on Twitter and Instagram.