Zenit St Petersburg want €40m from Chelsea for Leandro Paredes — report

Chelsea are hoping to bring in a new backup for Jorginho this January following the departure of Cesc Fabregas to AS Monaco. Maurizio Sarri himself has hammered his point home in multiple press conferences, and he’s not one to sully himself with such concerns normally.

The primary target, unless we’re about to do something drastically uncharacteristic like give Charlie Colkett a try, appears to be Zenit St. Petersburg’s Leandro Paredes. The 24-year-old was once been exposed to the ideas of Sarrismo from Sarri’s successor at Empoli, Marco Giampaolo, at Empoli, and has established himself as one of the better young deep-lying playmakers in Europe.

Last week, Chelsea reportedly offered €30m (or £26.8m as reported by the Evening Standard today), but as it’s so often the case in negotiations, that opening offer has been knocked back. According to Goal’s Nizaar Kinsella, Zenit was €40m instead.

Is this problem worth another €10m to Chelsea? We’re about to find out. Paredes is a quality player, there’s little doubt about that, but spending that much on a player targeted to be just a rotation player at best has the chance of turning into another Danny Drinkwater debacle.