Chelsea reportedly have Manchester United target Jarrad Branthwaite on their summer shortlist as scouts have instructed the club to concentrate ‘sizeable’ time on recruiting defensive assets.
Branthwaite has been seen as one of the standout defenders in the Premier League this season. After sitting on the bench in the first two games of Everton’s season, he’s not missed a minute other than one game, which he was suspended for.
While the Toffees are 16th in the league – partially due to the fact they were deducted points – their defence has been much stronger than sides around them.
Indeed, they have conceded just 39 goals, which is the same amount as fifth and sixth-placed Tottenham and Manchester United, and at least nine goals fewer than anybody else in the bottom half.
As a result, United have their eyes firmly fixed on him for a summer transfer. It’s said they are ‘heavily involved’ in getting a deal over the line for Branthwaite, and could part with at least £65million.
However, they may not be alone in that pursuit. Indeed, according to HITC, Chelsea have Branthwaite on their list of centre-back targets for the summer.
That list also includes the likes of Ousmane Diomande, Jules Kounde and Leny Yoro.
The sheer amount of centre-backs on Chelsea’s radar comes as a result of an instruction from scouts to ‘concentrate a sizeable amount of time on their defensive targets’.
The report states that a new left-back and a new central defender will therefore be pursued.
Work is being put into a move for top target Diomande, as it’s said the Blues ‘have watched him numerous times’ this season, including in his last match – a 3-0 Sporting CP win over Arouca, in which he played the full 90 minutes.
It was the fifth league game the Ivorian centre-back has played this season in which Sporting kept a clean sheet, and he gained a 7.5 match rating from WhoScored – one of his best ratings of the campaign.
As such, it’s likely Chelsea were happy with what they saw, and they’ll likely continue their pursuit of him. It remains to be seen if they’ll make a move for Branthwaite as well if they get him.
They have signed multiple centre-backs in a window recently, though, so it would not be a surprise if they did so again.
