Chelsea have been given a huge boost in their attempts to prize defender Wesley Fofana away from Leicester City.
football.london understands that the Blues had an offer of around £50m plus add-ons rejected for the player with the Foxes holding out for a package worth at least £20m more and a total package of over £70m. This comes as Thomas Tuchel looks to frantically strengthen his defence ahead of the weekend's Premier League opener against Everton.
As it currently stands the German will likely field a defence comprising of Reece James, Trevor Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly and one of Marcos Alonso or Ben Chilwell, but with the futures of Cesar Azpilicueta and Alonso still up in the end, Tuchel wants reassurances for his backline.
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As well as centre-back additions, looking to find more new faces to accompany Koulibaly, Tuchel is keen to add depth to his fullback and wingback spots as football.london understands Chelsea are close to signing Brighton star Marc Cucurella for around £50m as well as opening interest in Southampton's Kyle Walker-Peters.
The move for Spanish left-back Cucurella has been opportunistic as Boehly looks to capitalise on Manchester City's reluctance to pay the Seagulls' asking price, but interest is also longstanding. The same can be said for any deal for Fofana as Chelsea's sights have been turned towards the player previously.
They have now been given a massive confidence boost as the player makes his own attempts to secure a big money move to London. Whereas Brendan Rodgers' public stance remained that Fofana was not for sale, football.london believes that there are now actions, both internal and external, to suggest that the 21-year-old wants to force his move, though no transfer request has been handed in.
The player has made several key changes to his social media pages as well as leaving cryptic messages on Instagram. First, he removed the Leicester City tag from his profile biography on Twitter, before momentarily pinning an old message to the fans saying: "You give me so much love. It was not easy for me but thanks to you I came back stronger. Me and my family won’t forget all the love you sent me during that difficult time. Be sure that I will always do my best for the Foxes. Thank you for your unconditional support."
The former Saint-Etienne player then also removed Leicester from his Instagram profile before posting a picture of himself with a thinking bubble above his head and then posting a quote that says: "My dad told me, you're going to p*** off a lot of people when you start doing what's best for you. And I started to understand."
It now appears that since Chelsea's opening bid and talks having continued since last week, Fofana is now keen for a move to be completed having previously been open to a transfer though not in a position to force it. His social media antics could just be a game, one that the Leicester media and communications team aren't likely to be fans of, or there could be a serious deeper meaning as Chelsea ramp up their efforts to be prepared on and off the pitch for the start of the new season.
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