Chelsea join race for Pau Torres but Antonio Rüdiger expected to stay — reports

Centre back will be one of the priority positions for Chelsea to reinforce in the future, with various names like Dayot Upamecano, David Alaba, and Mohamed Simakan linked to the club just in recent weeks.

According to The Athletic and Sport 1 (via Marca), there could be another familiar addition to that list in Villarreal’s Pau Torres. The 24-year-old has become one of Europe’s hottest young defenders in the last year.

Just as in the case of Upamecano, Chelsea will need to go head-to-head with Bayern Munich if we are to entice the player to come to London, with the Bundesliga side also looking to revamp their defensive corps. Alongside Bayern, the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona and Juventus are also said to be interested in the Spain international’s services, who has a mammoth €60m release clause in his contract.

While it’s unlikely that Chelsea will go as high as that figure, Torres could certainly be an interesting option to reinforce our backline at a negotiated price.

In other center back news, Antonio Rüdiger, who had been linked with an exit since the summer, could be getting a new lease of life with Thomas Tuchel’s arrival. According to Sky Deutschland, Tuchel has already reassured the 27-year-old of his place in the squad. It’s worth recollecting that Tuchel wanted the Germany international at PSG already.

(Ed.note: it should also be noted that reports of Rüdiger & Co getting Lampard fired are based on, at best, conjecture and assumption and fake news — just as it was with the “3 rats” and many other similar instances. Player power is always a factor, and the dressing room has been about as harmonious as you’d expect in the middle of a terrible run with over half the players not playing much at all, but to give these players that much credit and this much time and emotion would be erroneous.)