The blues have reportedly entered into talks to sign Napoli centre-forward Dries Mertens. The English coach has made no secret of his desire to bring in attacking reinforcements this winter and the Blues manager has drawn up a shortlist of targets as he looks to ease the pressure on young centre-forward Tammy Abraham.
Moussa Dembele, Jadon Sancho, Lemar and Gabriel Barbosa are all firmly on Frank’s radar, but the London club have pulled out of the race for Wilfried Zaha, with Crystal Palace demanding £80m for the forward.
While Blues deem Palace’s asking price for Zaha excessive, the funds are available for cheaper.
Blues have stepped up their interest in Belgium international who becomes a free agent at the end of the campaign. The report claims both Chelsea and Nerazzurri have held concrete talks to land Dries.
The 32-year-old centre-forward has become a fan favourite among the San Paolo faithful after scoring 118 goals in 300 games, but this campaign looks certain to be his last in Naples.
Chelsea boss claims he’s at the heart of a ‘joined-up’ transfer strategy to bolster Blues this winter., ‘I know we haven’t done anything yet, so there is no proof in that, but we are joined up,’ Frank said.
‘I have very close conversations with Marina, Petr Cech and Scott, who is the head of our recruitment department. ‘They know what I want, and I will be fundamentally in the middle of who and what we bring into the team.’