Everton willing to loan out Lucas Digne in January with Inter Milan leading race — report

Chelsea were said to be considering a move for Everton’s Lucas Digne, with the 28-year-old out of favor with his manager, Rafa Benitez.

Alfredo Pedulla reiterates Chelsea’s interest in the player, with Everton said to be willing to allow Digne to depart on loan — while including a buying option — in the winter transfer window. It’s worth noting that the Toffees have already secured his replacement in Dynamo Kyiv’s Vitaliy Mykolenko for €20-23m, with only an official announcement pending.

Inter Milan are seemingly the frontrunners in the race for Digne, and are waiting for Hellas Verona-linked Aleksandar Kolarov or Leicester City-linked Matías Vecino’s departure before formalizing a move.

Alongside Inter, Serie A side Napoli are also apparently interested, with manager Luciano Spalletti already having worked with Digne at AS Roma. The Neapolitan side are focusing on a centre back, but could make a move for Digne in case they manage to offload Faouzi Ghoulam.

Chelsea’s interest in Digne stems from Ben Chilwell’s potential long-term injury, and a concrete approach could be made for the Frenchman should Chilwell’s return to the first-team not occur by next month as initially hoped. Considering the fact that Digne fell out with Benitez due to the latter not appreciating the fullback’s attacking-oriented gameplay in the first place, he may indeed be the perfect match in a wingback-based system like ours.

Chelsea have also been rumored to be keeping an eye on Sergiño Dest — in whom Arsenal are also supposedly interested — with both Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso’s futures beyond the season clouded in uncertainty.