Wesley Fofana, Max Kilman, Adam Webster and others were names being speculated on Chelsea fan Twitter over the last few days after it was revealed that a Premier League-proven defender was to be targeted alongside a European option.
But, as the Blues did with Romelu Lukaku last summer, on a smaller scale this time, Todd Boehly is looking to replicate that similar route with a certain Dutch international who certainly has unfinished business at Stamford Bridge. Nathan Ake never made himself a mainstay in various Chelsea teams as a certain loan spell which eventually turned permanent on the South Coast at AFC Bournemouth convinced Man City to spend a whooping £40million in the summer transfer window of 2020.
A move that hasn't really worked out for the 27-year-old who has been used as a rotational player in the whole with the other top centre-halves that Pep Guardiola has at his disposal. Therefore, it's no wonder that the current Premier League Champions are up for generating a huge transfer windfall from the sale of both Ake and Raheem Sterling to Chelsea this summer.
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The Telegraph have reported that the Blues have opened official talks with the Citizens with new owner Boehly hoping to conclude this deal before the start of pre-season this weekend.
Chelsea are hoping to pay around £45m for City's number 7 but how much will their number 6 cost, considering he still has three years remaining on his current deal in east Manchester?
According to the CIES Football Observatory, they have quoted a £26m fee for the versatile defender meaning that in total, around £71m plus could be spent of the £200m transfer budget just on Man City players themselves.
Manager Thomas Tuchel is reportedly a big admirer of the Den Haag-born defender with his admiration for him stretching back to his Borussia Dortmund days. His versatility and being able to adapt to playing centre-half, left-back and sometimes on the odd occasion, in midfield is attractive in the mind of the German who has a big task on his hands to fill the voids left by the likes of Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen.
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