Abramovich ready to back Lampard at Chelsea with ‘two marquee signings’ — report

While most transfer rumors and stories about the upcoming transfer window are couched in the expectation that the pandemic will have depressed and changed the market to a great extent, the Athletic’s rundown of Chelsea’s plan of action for this summer strikes a different chord.

According to Simon Johnson and David Ornstein, Chelsea are casting a wide net not just to keep scouts and scribes busy, but to identify two “marquee” signings for next season — in addition to already agreed and confirmed arrival Hakim Ziyech, who will join from Ajax.

Using the windfall of cash from the Eden Hazard and Álvaro Morata sales (£150-200m combined), the report claims that the Blues have made attacking players “a particular priority”, listing the already familiar names of Jadon Sancho, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, and Moussa Dembélé as the targets.

Meanwhile, Lampard has made “acquiring a new left-back a priority” and here the shortlist is much shorter, just one name in fact: Ben Chilwell. The Leicester City left back has not featured much in the rumor mill lately after it was made apparent that Leicester set their asking price in the hands-off region of £80m. But that was before the pandemic; now it might be more feasible? For what it’s worth, the report claims that Chilwell, who has four (4!) years left on his current contract, “would be tempted” to move to London.

So, Chilwell and one of the four attacking players mentioned. Certainly wouldn’t make for a bad summer...