Chelsea “impressed” with Serie A’s 18th best centre back after he shut down Milan | OneFootball

Chelsea’s insatiable desire to add more players means that even their freshly constructed squad means that transfer rumours are never far away, and today we’ve got a fresh one for you.

Get Football News Italy have an exclusive report that the Blues have added another defender to their shortlist – Bologna defender Sam Beukema. They apparently had scouts at his game yesterday, where he helped the Rossoblu win 2-1 against struggling AC Milan.

They were left specifically “impressed” by Beukema’s contribution to the victory. Opposing team Milan were also apparently impressed – they apparently see the 26 year old as a “key target” for the summer.

Chelsea’s central defensive situation is a little messy right now. There are a lot of options, but none really stand out as exceptional. We’re not sure Beukema would change that – we’ve not seen much of him, but would he really be a huge step up from Levi Colwill or Trevoh Chalobah? We’re not sure. WhoScored’s ratings system has him as the 18th best central defender in Serie A this season. Of course that’s a very crude metric, but it shows he’s hardly head and shoulders above the competition.

Chelsea would have to break their model to sign 26 year old defender

Sam Beukema plays a long ball out of defence for Bologna. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)

As always, we’re sceptical whenever Chelsea are linked to a player over 21, as their stated aim is to secure young players. But we saw with the free transfer move for Tosin Adarabioyo last summer that they’re always willing to bend the rules for the right opportunity, and if they think they can land Beukema for a bargain fee, there’s no reason they wouldn’t at least consider it.

At this point, their main issue may be the competition – Inter, Juventus and Real Madrid are named alongside Milan as competitors for the former AZ Alkmaar player.