Chelsea transfer news: Declan Rice, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Edouard Mendy, Marash Kumbulla - plus Premier League updates
The Blues remain active in the market despite already spending more than £200m this summer
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Chelsea look to shift West Ham’s stance over Declan Rice, though it appears to be a tough negotiation at this stage with the Hammers desperate to retain the England international. The main business in the coming days appears to be through the exit as Frank Lampard prepares to slim down his squad.
The stunning summer in the market has seen the arrivals of Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz and Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell joined Hakim Ziyech of Ajax and Timo Werner of RB Leipzig while defenders Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr arrived on free transfers from Ligue 1.
Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is set to arrive from Rennes imminently, with Kepa Arrizabalaga failing to show any signs of improvement against Brighton on Monday. Emerson appears destined to leave with Inter Milan and West Ham keen, as Marcos Alonso looks set to remain and compete with Chilwell for game time.
MENDY DEAL COULD BE DONE IN HOURS
Fabrizio Romano says that a deal between Chelsea and Rennes for goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is almost done and just needs formalising, a process that could be complete in a matter of hours.
‘IT IS BASCIALLY DONE’ - BILIC ON GALLAGHER DEAL
Paperwork is the only thing holding up Conor Gallagher’s season-long loan deal to West Brom according to Baggies manager, Slaven Bilic.
The two clubs need to dot the i’s and cross the t’s but a deal is pretty much done for the 20-year-old. We’re just awaiting official confirmation now.
NO MOVEMENT IN MENDY DEAL
talkSPORT have said that Chelsea will be announcing the signing of Edouard Mendy in the coming days but noise on this potential deal has gone quiet today.
Mendy will join Chelsea for a fee around £18 million and will challenge Kepa Arrizabalaga for the No. 1 spot in the side.
Reports from France say Rennes are trying to bring Fikayo Tomori over to the club as part of the deal but Everton’s interest in the defender may complicate things.
GALLAGHER STILL WAITING ON WEST BROM
Chelsea youngster Conor Gallagher's loan move to West Brom is expected to be completed at some point today but the 20-year-old’s loan deal is yet to be confirmed.
When he joins the Baggies he will meet up with former Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic whose signing for West Brom was a ‘no brainer’ according to manager Slaven Bilic.
WERNER FOCUSED ON LIVERPOOL
Timo Werner is focused on Chelsea’s next fixture, against Liverpool, this weekend. He told Chelseafc.com that the Blues have the quality to beat the Premier League champions despite not having the greatest pre-season warm up.
Werner said:
"I am looking forward to the game beacuse you have a lot of good teams and with Liverpool, one of the best teams in the world.
"They won the league last year and they have the same team as last year, so they will be as strong as last year. So it will be a really good challenge for us to see how far we are. We had not so good a pre-season because a lot of players come from holiday, a lot of players didn’t play games before our first game with Brighton, that made it a little difficult to fight together but I think for this we did very well.
"We will improve game by game but now we have to play on Sunday and we try to win the game. We are playing against a strong team and they have such good players, not just Virgil van Dijk, the whole defending part of Liverpool are very good.
“But we also have great players and we have the quality to beat the,. It will be an interesting game.”
HAVERTZ ON LAMPARD
Frank Lampard’s influence on Chelsea’s summer recruitment can be seen in the signings the London club have already made.
ONe of those new signings, Kai Havertz, gave his first press conference for the club earlier and noted that he used to watch Lampard play when he was a kid.
“I watched many games of him as a kid and I loved him as a player,” Havertz commented on Lampard. "He was one of the biggest players in England of his time.
"He likes the way I play as a midfielder, to go into the box trying to score goals and make assists. It helps a lot to have a manager who played for such a long time in the Premier League and in the national team.
"He can give me tips and I think he will help me a lot to become a better football player so I’m very excited that he’s my manager now."
CHELSEA MOVE ‘DREAM COME TRUE’ FOR HAVERTZ
Kai Havertz is giving his first press conference as a Chelsea player and he admits his £89million move to Chelsea still feels surreal.
The 21-year-old became the joint-most expensive player signed by a British club when he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen but he won’t allow the expectation to hold him back.
“Of course I watched the Premier League as a kid, very often with my family and with my parents," he said.
"Now it seems a bit unreal for me and my family that I am sitting here for a club like Chelsea… I was dreaming as a kid to play in the Premier League and for Chelsea as well, a very big club and one of the best in the world,
“I will not put a lot of pressure on myself because I think I am doing not the best or the worst because the price tag is that high. I am trying to focus on football and trying to play my best football here in Chelsea and not put pressure on myself. I'm just playing football, I love to play football. That's why I'm here.”
LOAN DEAL FOR TOMORI
More details have emerged on Carlo Ancelotti’s pursuit of Fikayo Tomori.
The Sun are reporting that Everton want to sign the 22-year-old on a season-long loan deal similar to the deal the clubs made when Kurt Zouma joined the Toffees for the 2018/19 campaign.
Ancelotti is keen to bolster his defence and The Times claim that Everton want to get this deal done in the coming weeks.
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