Chelsea agree personal terms with Édouard Mendy as Rennes confirm ongoing negotiations

Chelsea have the two of the three “agreements” needed to seal the club’s seventh major first-team signing this summer, Édouard Mendy from Stade Rennais. That’s the word from Nicolas Holveck, the club president of the Ligue 1 upstarts, who confirmed today that negotiations are ongoing with the Blues over the 28-year-old goalkeeper.

“Discussions have started with Chelsea for Édouard Mendy. I can understand his desire, he told us. But for now there is no agreement, and for a transfer you need an agreement of the three parties.”

-Nicolas Holveck; source: @bidrac15 via Google Translate

Holveck’s phrasing would seem to confirm that Chelsea have agreed personal terms with Mendy — the two “agreements” of the three needed — which was also reported by Mohamed Bouhafsi, among others.

Bouhafsi’s numbers mostly match the latest reports regarding a potential transfer fee as well. Those reports claimed a base fee of £18m (€20m) with add-ons of up to £7m (€8m). These numbers might hint that Rennes want a higher base fee with fewer add-ons, which would make sense. But given Chelsea’s track record, we can expect the deal to get done at the lower end of the range — and still way below Rennes’ initial asking price of €40m.

Édouard Mendy seems to be the best overall option out of the “not outrageously priced” shortlist of goalkeepers.

We might be just a few days away from seeing Mendy holding up the Chelsea shirt at Stamford Bridge, putting pen to paper, and shaking hands with Petr Čech (who is said to have been running point on this) or Marina Granovskaia.

Good stuff!