Incoming – Central Midfield
Radja Nainggolan – This is the rumor that we have been hearing the most about since the signing of Antonio Conte was first announced. Chelsea have already made a bid (a lowball £23 million pound offer) to sign the tenacious midfielder from Roma and the possibility of a deal being made here does seem to be very possible. Nainggolan plays in a position that Chelsea are lacking suitable quality in and Roma’s asking price doesn’t appear to be too high.
Miralem Pjanic – The other Roma midfield maestro that has been endlessly linked with the Blues since Conte’s appointment seems less likely than his counterpart to be making his way from the streets of the Eternal City to London.
Though Pjanic is undoubtedly a quality player it seems improbable that Roma will decide to gut the entire core of their midfield as soon as it has begun to flourish into a competitive Serie A power.
Pjanic also plays in a position and style that is incredibly similar to Chelsea’s own Cesc Fabregas and so the two of them in the same side makes very little sense from a squad balance point of view. This is a deal that seems unlikely to happen considering what Conte already has to work with and the amount of young talent he is expected to bring through as well.
Blaise Matuidi – This rumor has strung itself up do to the weak nature of Chelsea’s defensive midfield pairing. When the real Nemanja Matic got lost at sea Chelsea immediately got linked with every midfield enforcer from London to Timbuktu.
Matuidi plays for PSG right now and at age of 29, doesn’t seem to be the sort of player who would be giving up Champions League football even if it’s just for a year (hopefully). This is a case of it being either him or Nainggolan and it does appear to be “The Ninja’s” transfer that will be going through at some point this summer.
Next: Incoming - Paul Pogba