Chelsea remain in the market for new defenders despite spending £70million on Wesley Fofana, £40million for Kalidou Koulibaly and £50million on Marc Cucurella over the summer. Having lost both Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger for free, the Blues still face plenty of backline changes.
Graham Potter has continued to work with a back three on the whole but ended Premier League push before the World Cup break with just five fit defenders after a plague of injuries ran through the squad. On top of depth issues on the right and ageing legs for Thiago Silva and Cesar Azpilicueta, Thomas Tuchel was keen to bring an extra body through the door.
One of the men he highlighted for that position was 20-year-old Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig. The Croatian defender has been in brilliant form for his country in Qatar and has demonstrated why the Blues were eager to get a deal done last summer. Todd Boehly came close to agreeing a fee for the aggressive centre-back before he agreed a new deal keeping him in Germany until 2027.
