Chelsea want versatile Bayern Munich full-back Benjamin Pavard.
Thomas Tuchel has targeted the 26-year-old France international with Bayern set to gazump him for Juventus centre-half Matthijs de Ligt. Pavard is being eyed up as an alternative as even though he is predominately a right-back he can play across the back line.
Juventus are also big admirers of Pavard but see De Ligt as more of a priority. Atletico Madrid are also keen. Pavard has lifted three Bundesliga titles with Bayern and helped to clinch the Champions League in 2020. He made 35 appearances for the German giants in all competitions last season and has been playing for them since 2019, when he joined from Stuttgart in a £30m deal.
Pavard also has 45 France caps and was part of their World Cup winning squad four years ago. Meanwhile, Jorginho is hoping to agree a new deal at Chelsea within the first two months of the new season. The Brazil-born star has less than 12 months left on his contract but his agent, Joao Santos, has insisted his client has prioritised staying in west London amid talk he could be used as a makeweight in deals to bring players in. Santos said: “Chelsea are the priority. The contract will expire in 2023, I think we will talk about the renewal from September.”
Tuchel claimed before the end of last season that Chelsea have defined plans in terms of recruitment over the summer. He said at a press conference in May: "We have clear ideas for the profiles and characteristic of these players. It is not like you put a name on the list and then you get the player. You have to convince the player, you have to speak to other clubs and convince yourself this is the player. The two top teams [Man City and Liverpool ] improve their teams and have teams that are very clear on which they build. It's a rebuild necessary for us and that makes it more challenging, of course.
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"So there is normally a lot of work and it will be the same to be competitive next season, while, like everybody else, tries to close the gap to us, while the two top teams are what they are. A benchmark of consistency. This is the situation and from there we do our very best to be competitive because this is what we want to be. It will be a super tough race. Manchester United will be in the race and Tottenham will be in the race with Antonio Conte for sure. We want to stay in the race and Liverpool and Man City do everything to make their squads bigger and they set the standard so high. This is the challenge in which we compete."
Meanwhile, six Chelsea fixtures early in the season have been moved to accommodate television. They start the 2022-23 campaign against former boss Frank Lampard at Goodison Park on Saturday, August 6th in a 5:30pm kick-off. Chelsea's first game at Stamford Bridge will be against Tottenham the following weekend and that fixture has now been moved to the 4.30pm slot on Sunday, August 14th. Chelsea's fixtures against Leeds (Sunday, August 21st at 2:00pm), Southampton (Tuesday August 30th at 7.45pm) have also been moved. In September, Chelsea's clash with West Ham (Sunday September 4th at 2:00pm) and away to Fulham (Saturday, September 10th at 12.30pm) have also been switched.
