Chelsea have managed to secure Champions League qualification for the upcoming season and according to pundit Paul Merson, they will need to sign a defender like John Stones in order to be genuine title contenders.
He wrote for Sky Sports: “Cesar Azpilicueta is a great pro, but he’s getting on now. Kurt Zouma has a mistake in him.
“Chelsea don’t have a naturally-gifted centre-half who can put his foot on the ball and play. I’d go and get John Stones for that, and play him in the middle of the three. Then I’d say have Antonio Rudiger and Christensen either side of them.
“Chelsea love to play out the back, they roll it out every time, so you need someone unbelievably good on the ball.
“If you have pace around them, I think it will help Chelsea; I think Stones would be a great buy, and he has to play in a three.
“Stones has the potential to be great, he really has, but he needs the confidence. At the moment Chelsea have three centre-halves that aren’t in the same class as Stones on the ball.”
Will Man City let John Stones leave?
John Stones joined Man City in 2016 from Everton but this season he has fallen down the pecking order managing to feature in only 16 Premier League games for the club.
Pep Guardiola is already on the lookout for a new centre-back and as soon as he finds one, he will not have any issues in letting the England international leave in the summer.
So clearly Stones will be up for sale at some point in the summer but what remains to be seen is if Lampard is really interested in him or not.
There’s no denying that Chelsea need a new central defender in order to strengthen their backline next season but will their manager be ready to pay around £35-40 million for John Stones?
