CHELSEA are ready to battle Manchester United to try and sign Porto’s Diogo Costa – but he may only be backup to Kepa.
Hakim Ziyech, Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly have reportedly all reached full verbal agreements on transfers to leave Stamford Bridge for Saudi Arabia.
GettyChelsea will battle Man Utd to sign Porto’s Diogo Costa[/caption]
GettyA report states he could come in as back-up to Kepa[/caption]
The Chelsea winger, 30, goalkeeper, 31, and centre-back, 32, are surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge following Todd Boehly’s mammoth spending spree.
The deals are virtually done for the trio to become the next Chelsea players to make the switch to the Middle East this summer.
That is after N’Golo Kante, whose package in West London expired this month, completed a whopping £86million contract with Al-Ittihad.
Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang could also move to Saudi Arabia as Chelsea continue to clear out their deadwood – to trim down the bloated squad and help balance the books to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.
And that has freed up some room for new boss Mauricio Pochettino to bring in some new additions.
And one of his targets is believed to be 23-year-old Portugal international Costa.
However, Portuguese site Record claims that Costa will not be brought in to become the club’s new No.1 but is wanted to provide competition to Kepa amid Mendy’s exit.
Now it remains to be seen whether they are ready to fight it out with United to try and bring the stopper to the Premier League.
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Mendy, 30, snubbed a new six-year contract over the salary offered – which did not rival Kepa’s.
He kept 49 clean sheets in 104 games for the Blues since arriving at Stamford Bridge in 2020 and helped them to Champions League and Club World Cup success before falling out of favour.
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