Surprise name emerges in Chelsea's left back hunt

There are less than two weeks to go until the start of the 2015-16 Premier League season and Chelsea are at least one defensive signing short of a full squad.  While adding another center back like John Stones may be a nice-to-have, bringing in a replacement left back for Filipe Luis is a must-have.  Filipe has yet to officially sign for Atletico Madrid, but he's been camped out in the Spanish capital for almost a week now, just waiting for the green light.  Meanwhile, we've been supposedly working hard to get young Baba Rahman in, but if a report from the Transfer Market Oracle is to be believed, we might have other options in our left back hunt as well.

Chelsea on verge of closing deal for Galatasaray’s Alex Telles http://t.co/rIPH0Xrv5T

— David Amoyal (@DavidAmoyal) July 27, 2015

Alex Telles is a 22-year-old attacking full back who joined Galatasaray 18 months ago from Gremio for €6m.  He's been the Turkish champions' starting left back ever since, including in our Champions League Round of 16 meeting two seasons ago.  Di Marzio's report does not mention a potential transfer fee, but when Roma, Inter, and PSG were interested in him earlier this summer, the prices quoted were in the region of just €8-10m, which is roughly half of what it would take to prize Rahman away from Augsburg's clutches (at least).

Whether there is actual interest on our part or this is just a negotiation tactic (see, we don't need you sell us Baba either) remains to be seen of course.  Until then, here's the obligatory YouTube highlight video.