“Over the last few hours…” – Di Marzio names Chelsea’s €15m Casadei replacement club have been “pushing hard” for | OneFootball

Chelsea are very close to completing a deal to sell Cesare Casadei to a team in Serie A.

Lazio seem the closest to winning the race, but there’s a lot of talk of other interested teams. A structure that keeps Chelsea happy given they paid £17m for the former Inter midfielder back in the summer of 2022 is vital, but once that’s done personal terms shouldn’t be hard to sort out.

Casadei has played a fair amount in the cups, but it’s a good time for him to move on, and even though Chelsea look likely to make a loss on the initial fee they paid for him, they have the leverage to demand a major sell on fee that could ultimately make the whole operation profitable.

Casadei replacement can be a much better squad fit for Chelsea

Reda Belahyane playing for Hellas Verona (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)

So who replaces Casadei, both in the squad as a midfield option further down the depth chart, and as another talent who can potentially be picked up cheap and flipped for profit in the future? According to Gianluca Di Marzio, the Blues already have one lined up.

They want Reda Belahyane from Hellas Verona to replace Casadei in both roles. Di Marzio says Chelsea are going to “push hard” for a €5m deal for the playmaker as soon as the Casadei deal is done.

In fact, given Belahyane plays deeper than Casadei, he would actually fill a need in this squad much more than Casadei ever did, given he prefers to play in a more attacking midfield role where we’re already well covered.

Honestly, if this deal was wrapped up this week (and there’s no indication it would be) the fact that Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia are doubts for this weekend would likely that Morocco international would go straight into our squad.