Chelsea are known to be seeking defensive reinforcements before the window slams shut. Three players from St.Mary’s Stadium are on Antonio Conte’s radar.
Wantaway centre back Virgil Van Dijk, former Blue and part of the Champions League winning XI Ryan Bertrand, and Portuguese Euro Cup winner Cedric Soares. Chelsea have made a £15 million bid for the latter as they look to bolster their squad.
Soares is said to be extremely keen on joining up with the champions and he would go head to head against resurgent Nigerian Victor Moses.
The 25-year-old added fuel to the fire when he shared pictures of his trip to the capital city on his social media profile.
The comment feeds of those posts were filled by Chelsea fans urging him to join The Blues as they still seek defensive reinforcements.
Big city life🎶 #BigCity pic.twitter.com/TvR6RR0qY3
— Cédric Soares (@OficialCedric) August 21, 2017
Despite the signing of four new players, the sale of certain first team players and the extra ordinary number of loanee’s even by Chelsea’s standards has left the team looking thin. Antonio Conte is known to want at least 3-4 new faces before the deadline.
Southampton, however, are keen to hold on to their squad and are likely to reject any advances made by Chelsea for the trio. The club has even rejected a transfer request from Virgil Van Dijk in order to maintain their stance of holding on to the key players.
On Van Dijk’s possible exit, Southampton chairman Ralph Krueger insisted: ‘Virgil is not for sale in this window and it’s not personal.
‘It’s not about him, it’s about an overall much, much, much bigger picture – a change of course for Southampton.
‘The first summer I was here five players went out and six went in, not counting Academy. Second summer three went out, seven came in, and third summer five went out, five came in. Now it is one out and two in, and this is who we want to become.
‘We want to mature, we want to be a team that can profit from synergies that create a much more attractive football and a better product for the fans, and gives us a chance to get back into Europe.’
Cedric has played the full 90 minutes in both of Southampton’s games so far and they do not have a backup readily available for him. As for Virgil Van Dijk, he has not featured so far for the Saints this season and it surely makes the last week of transfer window exciting.
