Chelsea aims to complete a £125million hat-trick of transfer deals for Tiemoue Bakayoko, Antonio Rudgier and Alex Sandro, who could become the club’s record signing.
With a £35m deal for midfielder Monaco midfielder Bakayoko still being finalised, Chelsea has agreed to sign Rudiger for £30m from Roma and will step up negotiations with Juventus for £60m-rated Sandro at the beginning of next week.
Chelsea will also announce the free transfer signing of Willy Caballero to act as deputy to first-choice goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois now that his Manchester City contract has expired.
There is optimism Chelsea’s pursuit of Sandro, who Paris Saint-Germain are also interested in, could take a significant step forwards next week. With Juventus adamant he will not be sold for less than £60m, Chelsea will have to break their transfer record, which stands at £50m for Fernando Torres in 2011, to get the 26-year-old.
Chelsea has already banked around £62m from the sales of Juan Cuadrado, Asmir Begovic, Christian Atsu, Bertrand Traore and Nathan Ake this summer, and are now working hard to spend big.
Their entire summer outlay is likely to top £200m, with head coach Antonio Conte still confident of landing Everton striker Romelu Lukaku and a move for a second central defender, other than Rudiger, not ruled out.
Conte ideally wants two players for each position which means Chelsea could sign Rudiger, stick to their plan of loaning out Kurt Zouma, and still have room in the squad for another centre-back after selling Ake and allowing John Terry’s contract to expire.
Virgil van Dijk and Leonardo Bonucci are Conte’s top central defensive targets, while Jerome Boateng is thought to be keen on a return to England.
But with deals for all three of those men likely to be difficult, Chelsea have moved for Rudiger to make sure they are not left short in defence when the season starts.
Rudiger’s agent travelled to England on Friday and Roma expect the 24-year-old to join the Premier League champions, following medical examinations next week.
