Chelsea reportedly asking less for Emerson than for Marcos Alonso from Juventus and Inter Milan

Over the past few weeks and months, both of Chelsea’s two left backs been linked with moves back to Italy — especially after they both lost their jobs to right back César Azpilicueta for a spell — and with just a week to go before the winter transfer window opens, they’ve been linked once again. In a usual bit of un-creativity by the rumor mill, they’ve been linked with the former Chelsea manager who preferred each one of them over the other.

Emerson, who arrived under Conte but only became first-choice under Maurizio Sarri, has been apparently on Sarri’s radar at Juventus, where he’s seen as a “solution” to Alex Sandro — as a backup or perhaps more. According to Tuttosport (via Sport Witness), Chelsea are “demanding” €30m for the 25-year-old former Roma left back, which Juventus could probably afford but are apparently wanting to do that classic Serie A move of a loan with a buy option instead. Tuttosport make no claims as to whether Chelsea would accept anything of the sort, but Emerson does have only 2.5 years left on his contract, so some serious discussions regarding his future should be taking place in the next 6-12 months.

Marcos Alonso’s contract situation is even more stable (3.5 years left), which perhaps explains why Chelsea are reportedly wanting €35-40m for him. As before, that’s still way too much for Inter Milan, where Antonio Conte’s currently masterminding a title-challenge to knock Juve off their perch at long last. Gazzetta dello Sport (again, via Sport Witness) claim that this move remains a “work in progress” however, with Chelsea and Inter in talks. Alonso’s excellent performance against Spurs over the weekend, his first appearance in almost two months, maybe will have helped strengthened our position and our demands?

While neither Emerson nor Marcos Alonso have managed to lock down their claim on a starting spot under Lampard thus far, one doing better in a standard back four and the other reminding of his qualities as a wing-back on Sunday, selling them would leave the squad severely short on numbers at full back. Even if Azpilicueta can switch, we’d be left with just Reece James at right back. Unless we can bring in someone like Ben Chilwell (highly unlikely, to say the least), it would be surprising to see any one of our current left backs leave in January, let alone both. The summer will be a different story, probably...