Chelsea ‘considering move’ for wantaway Everton left back Lucas Digne — report

Lucas Digne’s time at Everton appears to be over, with the France international left back set to depart in January after 3.5 years on the blue half of Merseyside.

Digne, who joined from Barcelona in 2018, just signed a new long-term contract extension in February (good to 2025), but seems to have fallen out with manager Rafa Benítez and the club appear happy to cash in on him. In fact, they’ve pretty much already secured a replacement in 22-year-old Vitaliy Mykolenko, who’s set to join for €20m from Dynamo Kyiv on January 1. Things sure can change quickly in football!

According to the Sunday Mirror (via Metro), Chelsea are among at least three Premier League teams interested in Digne, and are supposedly “considering” a move for the 28-year-old in light of Ben Chilwell’s injury, Marcos Alonso’s poor form, and a lack of viable options beyond him (or loanees we could realistically recall). Leicester City and Newcastle United are the other teams in the picture, with the latter particularly “keen”.

The report doesn’t hazard a guess about a potential transfer fee, but if Chilwell does have to have surgery (which is still very likely: knee ligaments don’t just heal themselves), he could be out or recovering well into next season as well. Meanwhile, Alonso has 18 months left on his contract and it seems rather unlikely that we’d extend him. Digne, who could be a good fit