Chelsea’s desperate hunt for defenders has seen them make a move to hijack Manchester City’s bid to buy Marc Cucurella from Brighton.
City have refused to meet Brighton’s £50million valuation for Cucurella, which has left the door open for Chelsea to hold talks of their own.
It is understood Cucurella is open to joining Chelsea, despite having been keen on a switch to City, and that Brighton have already started looking at potential replacements.
Although Chelsea already have a £50m left-back in Ben Chilwell, with Barcelona target Marcos Alonso and Emerson Palmeiri still at the club, Cucurella is seen as a potential solution to some of their defensive problems.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel has made it clear that he would ideally like to add another left-footed defender to his squad and that Chelsea require greater strength in the wing-back areas.
It is also believed that Tuchel sees Cucurella as being able to play on the left side of his back three, where the Spaniard has played for Brighton before.
Other than looking at left-back targets of their own, it is understood that Brighton could be tempted by a deal for Cucurella that includes highly-rated teenager Levi Colwill moving in the opposite direction.
Chelsea have missed out on a number of defensive targets this summer, having failed in moves for Matthijs de Ligt, Nathan Ake and most recently Jules Kounde, who joined Barcelona.
The Stamford Bridge club have, however, spent £34m on Kalidou Koulibaly and are interested in Inter Milan right-back Denzel Dumfries. Leicester City remain adamant they will not sell Wesley Fofana, who Chelsea have made enquiries over, unless they receive a huge bid of £80m or more.
Sources believe that Fofana would be interested in moving to Chelsea, despite Leicester’s insistence that the player is not for sale and happy at the Midlands club.