Chelsea closing in on £18m deal for goalkeeper Édouard Mendy — reports

Well, the Édouard Mendy signing looks to be happening, just as it had been prognosticated for the past couple weeks, with multiple reports now claiming that Chelsea are confident that we’ll be able to get this deal over the line soon. He would be the club’s seventh major first-team signing this summer.

Yesterday’s flurry of reporting was kicked off by The Athletic, who were then joined by the likes of the Telegraph and ESPN and others. The former did not have a price attached, but the latter are both going with an £18m base fee, plus add-ons up to £7m. The £18m (€20m) fee would match Chelsea’s reported second bid. Rennes were supposedly holding out for twice that amount, but it looks like they might have to settle for a fraction of that.

Mendy, who’s not exactly a household name and just five years ago was contemplating retirement, apparently comes with the strong recommendation of both Petr Čech and Christophe Lollichon.

If Big Pete’s happy, we’re happy.