BREAKING: Chelsea close to sign midfielder in coming hours in shock transfer deal
Reports from Portugal suggest that Chelsea are nearing a deadline day transaction to acquire Sporting Lisbon midfielder Dario Essugo.
With the transfer window closing at 11pm, we are now in the final few hours, and Chelsea is expected to be active right up until the deadline.
The Blues are still looking to finalise the exits of Joao Felix and Axel Disasi, whilst the club are working on trying to bring a midfielder.
Chelsea close in on Essugo signing
It’s no secret Chelsea wanted to bring an attacker in, but that now seems highly unlikely, and attention has been switched to looking for a new midfielder.
The Blues are lacking depth in the middle of the park due to Romeo Lavia’s injury issues, and with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall not trusted a lot of strain is being placed on Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo.
Chelsea made an enquiry for Juventus’ Douglas Luiz earlier in the window, whilst Manchester City knocked back an enquiry for Nico O’Reilly.
The Blues are continuing to negotiate with St Etienne for Mathis Amougou, but according to reports in Portugal Chelsea are closing in on a new midfielder.
Record have reported that the Blues are closing in on a deal worth more than €20m for Essugo, who is currently on loan at Las Palmas from Sporting Lisbon.
The report adds that the 19-year-old still has two yeas remaining on his current deal and there’s believed to be a release clause of €45m.
Essugo has made 14 appearances in La Liga this season. scoring once, but it’s hard to see how adding another young midfielder is the answer to Chelsea’s problems, given they have both Lesley Ugochukwu and Andrey Santos already on their books.
The clock is ticking and if the Blues don’t get a midfielder through the door, they are taking a huge gamble on their Champions League qualification, because if anything happens to Caicedo or Fernandez they’ve got a big problem.