Erik ten Hag's appointment at Manchester United could scupper Chelsea's interest in Juventus centre-half Matthijs de Ligt. The 22-year-old emerged as a candidate for Thomas Tuchel's back-three in January, amid the Blues' looming defender exodus in the summer.
With Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen's contracts set to expire at the end of the season, the west London side were out in full force to secure defensive reinforcements. Chelsea were 'willing to go crazy' in their efforts to sign de Ligt, according to Spanish outlet La Repubblica in January, via Sport Witness.
The report claimed that the Blues had been given a €65m (£54.4m) price tag for the Netherlands international's signature. In February, Italian outlet Calciomercato added that Chelsea were well positioned to secure de Ligt's services.
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But, Tuchel's mission to bolster his defence was quickly stopped in its tracks following the UK Government's decision to sanction Roman Abramovich. The licence issued by the Government to enable Chelsea to keep playing meant Chelsea could not sign or sell players, or enter in to contract talks with existing players on their books, which meant the west Londoner's pursuit of the defender came to a halt.
And, now that Ten Hag, who enjoyed 18 months alongside de Ligt at Ajax, is set to succeed Ralf Rangnick in the dugout at Old Trafford, Chelsea are at risk of losing sight of the perfect heir to Rudiger. The Juventus defender featured 70 times under the 52-year-old, winning Eredivisie and KNVB Cup in the process.
De Ligt was also a pivotal figure in Ten Hag's side that made it to the 2018/19 Champions League semi-final. The prospective United boss also named the defender as the youngest player ever to captain a team in the knockout stages of the aforementioned competition.
The Mirror are reporting that the United board are set to hand their new boss a £200m war chest in a bid to rejuvenate the club's faltering fortunes. While no reports have tied de Ligt to a move to Old Trafford, the Blues must be wary of the Red Devils' financial power.
Ten Hag has a short but rich history with de Ligt and that could be enough to keep him away from Stamford Bridge, if the latter's comments from January 2018 are anything to go by. Speaking to Joep Schreuder of the NOS, as quoted by our sister site the Manchester Evening News, the defender said: "Everybody has a new start under Erik ten Hag with a new football vision and opinions and as a squad that can only be good for us in order to continue development in the future.
"The training is different under Erik ten Hag with a lot of focus on tactical elements and positional play and it is really instructive. I want to become even more consistent and develop my skills under our new manager Erik Ten Hag."
