Chelsea are reportedly firmly in the hunt for Hellas Verona midfielder Reda Belahyane in the final week of January transfer Window.
The Blues have recalled Trevoh Chalobah from his loan spell at Crystal Palace to protect him in defense while a number of players are in various stages of leaving Stamford Bridge this month – including Renato Veiga, Christopher Nkunku, Carney Chukwuemeka and Ben Chilwell.
However, there are no brand new additions to Enzo Maresca’s squad yet. That could change given the rumors of interest in Belahyane, who at just 20 years old would be another example of the club scouting and recruiting talent with a view to long-term development.
Gianluca Di Marzio writes that Chelsea are “pushing hard” to sign Belahyane, having identified him as a replacement for Cesare Casadei, wanted by Lazio.
Casadei has been largely limited to minutes in the Conference League this season, starting three times in the group stages, but has barely made the bench in the Premier League. His departure is expected despite the lack of midfield depth which led to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall making his first start as a Chelsea player in a league game against Wolves earlier this week.
Maresca was missing both Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia from the 3-1 win due to muscle injuries and was unable to name a single senior midfielder on the bench.
According to Di Marzio’s report, once Casadei’s future is sorted, Chelsea will strike a €15m (£12.7m) deal to sign Belahyane.
The talented young player only moved to Italy last summer when Hellas recruited him from OGC Nice. This season he started 15 times in the weakened Serie A team in the lower midfield.
Chelsea also remain increasingly linked to Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho, but time to negotiate a potentially complicated deal is fast running out.