Chelsea are preparing another approach for 19-year-old midfielder Cesare Casadei, with Inter Milan now expected to accept a fee of around £12million.
The highly-rated box-to-box player has yet to make his senior professional debut but is regarded as one of the finest young talents at the San Siro.
Chelsea have heavily scouted the youngster, who they see as an initial academy signing that they can develop alongside their first team as part of a succession plan for N’Golo Kante and Jorginho, who will both see their deals expire in June 2023.
They have had two offers under £10m turned down already and have resisted the option of including a buy-back clause in the deal.
Casadei could be loaned back to Serie A upon signing or else spend time in the academy like £20m arrival from Aston Villa Carney Chukwuemeka, who will train with the first team but play some games at various youth levels.
The aggressive business in the academy is part of a ‘Vision 2030’ strategy by head of youth development Neil Bath, who wants to mirror the ambition of the first team in his set up.
The new owners, led by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, are thought to have fully committed to that vision and want to push it as far as they can.
The re-evaluation of Chelsea’s academy comes after a poor season at youth level when the development squad was almost relegated from Premier League 2.
It is also a response to Brexit, which has reduced the pool of players available to English academies, leading to a fight for older European or English-born talents.
The aggressive spending has also seen goalkeeper Eddie Beach join from Southampton and Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal.
It comes amid £165m being spent on the first-team squad, with Leicester’s Wesley Fofana, Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong and Inter’s Denzel Dumfries remaining on the club’s shortlist.
