Chelsea are involved in yet another tug-of-war with the Blues monitoring Tottenham ’s interest in £25million Leandro Trossard.
It follows their stunning swoop last weekend to hijack Arsenal ’s move for £88.5million Shakhtar winger Mykhaylo Mudryk. That took Chelsea ’s January spending to £160million on four players, plus a lucrative loan deal for the Portugal striker Joao Felix.
But with the new owners at the west London club determined to completely overhaul the team and the squad, their mid-season business is understood not to be at an end. Brighton forward Trossard was part of Belgium’s World Cup side after a stunning first half of the season in which he scored goals against Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Spurs and Arsenal are big fans of the 28-year-old who has been offered to rival clubs after falling out with Brighton head coach Roberto de Zerbi.
But Chelsea’s superior financial firepower means they could easily trump anything offered by either club to reunite the player with Graham Potter.
De Zerbi has left the door open for Trossard to fight his way back into the Brighton first team after he was left out of the last two games.
Where will Trossard be playing after the January transfer window? Let us know here
But Trossard, who until recently had just six months left on his contract, is understood to be aware of the interest from elsewhere and ready to listen. As such Brighton have activated the option to extend his contract by 12 months so that he cannot be sold on the cheap.
The club are unlikely to accept anything less than £25million for him and more than double that for 21-year-old Ecuadorian midfielder Moises Caicedo, in whom they have a well-documented interest.
De Zerbi provided an update on the situation after his Seagulls had beaten Liverpool at the weekend. He said: "I want to be clear about Trossard. In this moment I am sorry for this situation. I think I didn’t make a mistake with him.
"The people who work inside of Brighton know very well the situation and I am fine with myself. I am open to wait for him. I am ready to open the door for him because he is a good guy and he is a very good player for us, very important player.
“I don’t him to change the team but he has to understand that he has to work with my attitude, in my way because I am coach and I decide the rules inside the dressing room.
“I don’t want to speak about the communication of his agent because I don't know him. I know only Leo and I’m ready to listen to him without a problem because this situation is very important. It's not a bad situation, it's a great situation because if we learn."
