Romano: Chelsea watching €7m defender; could move next summer if progress continues | OneFootball

Despite Chelsea’s good form, there are a number of areas where first team can be improved.

Our 4-2 win yesterday was a reminder that, for all our attacking threat, we’re still very flimsy at the back. A major issue there is the goalkeeper – we’ve never been convinced by Robert Sanchez and never will be – but there’s also a strong argument that we could use some better defenders too.

Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana have had a good start to the season, but their backups Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi have never really convinced as top tier options. Perhaps it should be no surprise to hear us linked with yet more young talents from abroad then as we look to build a super team with elite potential from front to back.

Tomas Araujo in preseason with Benfica. (Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)

Chelsea get into gear watching latest Benfica talent

Fabrizio Romano has today written in his Daily Briefing column for CaughtOffside that the Blues are big admirers of Tomas Araujo of Benfica, valued by TransferMarkt at €7m but surely not moving for anything less than a few times that.

Whatever happens, we wouldn’t expect any action in January. This is a crowded squad and they will want to minimise mid-season disruption. There are still plenty of players to be sold before any more come in.

But by next summer we expect Enzo Maresca and the sporting directors to have a grip on what they think of the centre backs available to them, and from there they can commit major efforts to finding the elite option of the future we still need. That could well be Araujo, would then have the rest of this season to continue playing and developing with the Portuguese giants.

Long term, this is definitely one to keep an eye on.