Chelsea set sights on Romelu Lukaku, João Cancelo, others for summer spending spree — report

Taking a break from reporting seemingly exclusively on Jose Mourinho and Jorge Mendes things, Duncan Castles, writing for Yahoo Sports, brings us tidings of a Chelsea summer spending spree. Presumably this is the same spending spree that the Telegraph’s Matt Law has repeatedly brought in recent months as well.

Castles’s report is generally in agreement with the Telegraph’s in terms of the general aims of Chelsea’s summer transfer window, with Conte and the Board looking to acquire a new full back, centre back, midfielder, and striker as well.

For the full back position, one new name on the shortlist is Valencia's João Cancelo. Castles claims that Chelsea tried to make a move for the 22-year-old right back during the winter transfer window, but the attempt was rebuffed by the Spanish club as they are still in a fight against relegation. Also a Barcelona target who could feature as a right wing back, Cancelo could be on the move for another club for a €30 million fee next summer.

At centre back, Benfica's Victor Lindelof continues to be an option for Chelsea, though he was supposed to be all but done to Manchester United earlier. Southampton's Virgil van Dijk is on Chelsea's radar as well, but it is believed that the Dutchman prefers playing for Manchester City instead.

In attack, Everton's Romelu Lukaku would be Chelsea's first option to replace Diego Costa in case our prolific striker does complete a move to China later this year. Celtic's Moussa Dembele is also mentioned, although the youngster is seen as a replacement to back-up Michy Batshuayi instead.

Many of those targets make sense, and except for Cancelo, they are familiar names to the Chelsea rumor mill. Won’t be the last time we heard about any of these players, one suspects.