Chelsea finally find possible Thiago Silva replacement as brutal £52m transfer verdict revealed
Given the supply of centre-backs at Chelsea, both available and unavailable, there is general surprise that the club is still looking to sign another defender this window. Benoit Badiashile, Thiago Silva, Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi are all capable of playing there even if they have been moved around to fill roles accordingly.
Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana haven't played a minute between them and the overall average age of this collective unit of six is only slightly over 25, despite Silva bumping that up massively. Mauricio Pochettino is, for now, well stocked.
However, football.london understands that Nice's Jean-Clair Todibo is of serious interest to the club while Marc Guehi remains a player deeply admired by his former side. It certainly appears that the current group is not deemed to be enough.
Part of the reason for this is the current uncertainty over Silva. He is only contracted until the end of the season and is yet to sign, or make much progress towards agreeing, a new extension to what has always been an effective one-year rolling deal. He remains just as central to the current plans as ever, though.
There is no precedent for someone nearing 40 playing this often as an outfielder, though, let alone doing it in a team with aims of competing with the top six. It is this that creates unknowns and sparks the defensive recruitment drive. Now, it has been reported that Silva really is ready to call it quits on his time in London but not only that, Alessandro Bastoni at Inter is being lined up as a replacement.
The Italian has been a long-term target for Chelsea as well as other Premier League clubs, but could be sold due to dire financial problems crippling the Nerazzurri. Reports in Italy say that Chelsea are
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