Roman Abramovich to hand Frank Lampard £200m funds for three big Chelsea transfers - 7M sport

Roman Abramovich to hand Frank Lampard £200m funds for three big Chelsea transfers



Posted Monday, August 10, 2020 by Express.co.uk

Roman Abramovich to hand Frank Lampard £200m funds for three big Chelsea transfers
Chelsea transfer news Roman Abramovich Frank Lampard Kai Havertz Declan Rice Ben Chilwell (Image: GETTY)

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard is planning several more transfers as he looks to turn the Blues into Premier League title contenders.

Roman Abramovich will give the funds to Frank Lampard to take Chelsea's summer spending well north of £200million if the Blues can secure deals for the manager's three top targets. The Chelsea owner has already sanctioned over £80m of spending on Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech from RB Leipzig and Ajax respectively.

The two are essentially direct replacement for ageing wingers Willian and Pedro, who have been allowed to depart Stamford Bridge on free transfers.

But they also add extra quality to the Chelsea attack as Lampard looks to transform his team into a Premier League title contender.

Investment is needed to bridge the 33-point gap to champions Liverpool while second-placed Manchester City were also 15 points ahead of Chelsea.

And according to the Daily Mirror, Lampard is plotting three big signings - with Bayer Leverkusen attacker Kai Havertz the current priority.

Talks are well underway between the two clubs with Havertz thought to have already agreed terms to sign a five-year contract in west London.

But the two clubs are well apart in their valuations of the 21-year-old Germany international, Chelsea wanting to do a deal at around £60m to £70m.

Leicester's Chilwell is his top left-back target despite Ajax's Nicolas Tagliafico being a cheaper alternative, with a price tag of around £20m being mooted.

With the Foxes having sold Harry Maguire to Manchester United for a world record £80m a year ago, they are expected to demand a similar fee for his England team-mate.

Academy graduate Chilwell, 23, will not be allowed to leave Leicester on the cheap but Lampard is determined to bring him to the English capital.

Brendan Rodgers appears to be bracing for Chilwell's exit with Olympiakos' Kostas Tsimikas and Norwich's Jamal Lewis among his targets, with Liverpool also tracking the pair having had a bid rejected for the latter.

Meanwhile Lampard also sees West Ham's Declan Rice as a man to help fix his side's defensive problems.

The Chelsea boss thinks Rice can be the answer at centre-back despite the 21-year-old having spent much of his time in the Premier League in defensive midfield. He only started once in central defence in the league this season.

Named the Hammers' best player of the season, West Ham have long declared that Rice is not for sale at any price.

But more recently it has been suggested that it could take around £70m to land Rice, who was on Chelsea's books for eight years before being released in 2014.

The Mirror say that Chelsea also want a new goalkeeper but signing a new No 1 will surely first require Kepa Arrizabalaga to leave.

The Spaniard endured a wretched campaign and found himself dropped for Willy Caballero towards the end of it, including in the FA Cup final loss to Arsenal.

Signed for just shy of £72m from Athletic Bilbao two years ago, Chelsea no longer trust Arrizabalaga to be first choice and could offload him.

Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid is a target for the Londoners but he would require a huge outlay in excess of £100m.

Chelsea would need to agree a swap deal involving Arrizabalaga and would not want to commit huge funds in a player-plus-cash deal.

Instead, Ajax's Andre Onana is an alternative and could be picked up at around £30m - though Chelsea must still deal with Arrizabalaga's future if they opt for the Cameroonian.

Elsewhere, Ben White is viewed as alternative if Rice proves too expensive - though he too will not come cheaply.

Leeds have had two bids rejected for the Brighton defender with the 22-year-old having been an ever-present in their Championship title-winning team.

Liverpool also like White, who was the subject of £18.5m and £22m bids from Leeds this week.

Signing all of Havertz, Rice and Chilwell could see Chelsea's spending move close to £300m.

Lampard has made it clear that Chelsea must spend this summer if they are to make real progress in their search of major honours.

The gap between them and the top teams was shown on Saturday as they were beaten 4-1 by Bayern Munich to lose their Champions League last 16 tie 7-1 on aggregate.

Lampard said: “It is a work in progress. It is not the norm at Chelsea in the last 15-20 years finishing where we are.

"Now is not the time to rest and not settle and think where we can improve.

"We have had the likes of [Eden] Hazard and [Diego] Costa and then [Petr] Cech, [John] Terry and [Didier] Drogba and those teams were competing for Premier League titles and getting to semi finals and finals but we know that’s not the case right now.

“We lost the best player in the league in Hazard and we have had to develop young players.

"We don’t normally think finishing fourth is a good thing, that isn’t our level we are used to and we are not happy with that but it is an achievement with this group.”



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