Wesley Fofana or Harry Maguire? Thomas Tuchel's search for a further centre-back signing seems to have been whittled down to the final two.
Initially, Jules Kounde was the one primed to come in alongside Kalidou Koulibaly this summer but his decision to stay in Spain and move to Barcelona forced new owner Todd Boehly to look elsewhere. For a while now, Chelsea's interest in the Leicester star has been known and personal terms have even been agreed. The sticking point seems to be the fee.
football.london understands that the Blues have had two bids knocked back to date with the latest totalling £70m. Whether or not a world-record bid for a defender is made remains to be seen but a contingency plan is seemingly in the process of being made in the worst-case scenario. The ideal situation of Fofana signing does still look promising as demonstrated by what happened before, during and after Leicester's Southampton loss this weekend but Boehly continues to plan for all scenarios.
