Premier League giants Chelsea are set to resume their 2022-23 domestic campaign today when they host Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge while hoping to arrest their pre-World Cup run of poor form that saw them drop three in a row under Graham Potter.
But regardless of any potential result today, the Blues continue to look toward the future and have closed in on AS Monaco’s 21-year-old French international center-back Benoît Badiashile as the club looks to bolster Potter’s options in defense.
According to football insider Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea and the player have already lined up an agreement in principle ahead of a January move, with the Blues said to be parting ways with around £35m to bring in the Limoges native this winter.
Monaco manager Philippe Clement had previously been dogged in his determination to avoid speculation surrounding the highly-touted defender while aiming any comments toward his desire to keep players on the books in the principality that have their heads firmly in the sand.
“As a coach, we’re always happy when the transfer window shuts. We’ll see [if Badiashile will stay]. It depends on the situations, if they’re interesting for the club or not. The most important thing for me is that the players have their minds here, and that’s the case.”
Though Chelsea have not struggled on the defensive front this season while having only surrendered 17 goals in 14 fixtures, the Blues do need to consider the long-term picture of the senior squad given Thiago Silva’s age (38), while just Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah the only defenders on the books that are below the age of 30.
With Silva sure to retire in the near future, Badiashile would constitute an upgrade on Chalobah while giving the club a potential long-term partner for Fofana should the former Leicester City standout recover from a string of injury setbacks.
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