Chelsea set to make ‘three to four more transfers’ this summer — report

Chelsea have already spent nearly £130 million already in (initial) transfer fees to acquire four players this summer. The additions of goalkeeper Wilfredo Caballero (£0), defender Antonio Rüdiger (£29m+), midfielder Tiemoué Bakayoko (£40m+) and striker Álvaro Morata (£58m+) have been welcomed by fans and manager alike, and they are all set to contribute greatly to the team’s cause next season and beyond. But the job for the summer is not yet done, especially if Chelsea want to make a credible run in Europe in addition to challenging for the Premier League title once again.

Fortunately, the club continue to appear to be well aware of this situation, with reports once again rolling in of further spending and further acquisitions.

According to the London Evening Standard, Chelsea will add three or four more players to the fold this summer. However, one of those players will not be Virgil van Dijk, with whom the Blues have been linked throughout the current transfer window, but who has been priced out of the market by Southampton. The arrival of center backs Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen will have to be enough. It should be noted that a similar report in the Telegraph still lists Van Dijk as a potential transfer target.

Other supposed targets include Fernando Llorente, who also seems overpriced, Alex Sandro, who doesn’t seem keen to be moving anytime soon (but Chelsea have missed out on both Danilo and Mendy, so we’re back to Sandro), and Antonio Candreva, who’s already denied any such rumors and re-committed himself to Inter Milan. But, in any case, those are the three positions that Chelsea appear to be after, namely another forward, a wing-back, and a versatile midfielder.

In a recent press conference, head coach Antonio Conte mentioned the need to bring in more players so that he’s able to rely on more than just 13-14 players. So far, that hasn’t happened though the squad certainly had gotten younger at least. While it’s not ideal that Chelsea are still looking for transfer targets just a couple weeks before opening day, the transfer activity so far has shown that the Board are serious in backing Conte and we can trust that they will complete the job as we enter the second half of the summer transfer window.