Chelsea have been linked with Nathan Ake once again in recent weeks.
The Dutchman spent years in our youth system, before making his loan to Bournemouth permanent a couple of seasons ago.
Since then he’s continuing to fulfil the potential we always knew he had, blossoming into one of the Premier League’s best young passing centre backs; and has therefore been increasingly linked with a return to us – or a move to one of our top of the table rivals like Man City, as linked in the Sun here earlier this summer.
It’s a move we’d love to see in many ways. We still feel like Ake is a Chelsea boy at heart, and we’re desperately in need of a top tier centre half.
The question is – would Ake represent enough of an upgrade on Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen?
There’s definitely an argument to be made that he is better than them – but is he so many levels above that he’s worth investing a lot of money in as the new rock at the back alongside Antonio Rudiger? It’s hard to say. Neither of those two have truly impressed this season, now they’re getting chances.
They will have plenty more minutes this year to grow into the role, and we’ve seen tons of ability from each of them in the past.
But they know that the pressure is on now. Whether in January or the summer, reinforcements are on the way, and the pressure is on for every player in this side to prove that you don’t need replacing.