Maurizio Sarri has confirmed Chelsea will push ahead with plans to sign Mateo Kovacic permanently.
The Croatian is on loan at Stamford Bridge but have an impending transfer ban, which means the Blues could find themselves unable to sign the Real Madrid midfielder permanently.
And a deal makes sense, with Chelsea currently under a two-winter transfer embargo imposed by FIFA.
A permanent Kovacic deal would not fall under that embargo as the option was agreed in the initial loan terms.
“I want to try with Kovacic. He is only on loan, of course, but I’d like very much that Kovacic will stay with us,” Sarri said.
“You know very well that, in that position, we have some problems because we have only Jorginho. In my opinion, Kovacic could become a very good central midfielder.”
Kovacic has played 42 times for the Blues this season, assisting two goals but failing to score.
Sarri is unhappy at playing West Ham on Monday night to begin three matches in the space of seven days.
“It is important to have fun, for me. To work without working, because for me, it’s not work.
“I am not able to understand the decision of the Premier League because we have to go to Prague as an English team.
“So I’m not able to understand why we have to play on Monday. It’s very strange. I think they could have done more for the English teams in Europe.”