€50m price tag set for top Chelsea target – but Blues have another plan to beat Arsenal | OneFootball

The chase for Bologna defender Riccardo Calafiori is hotting up, and it’s increasingly looking like the left footed centre back is going to be the most coveted defensive player of the summer.

Fabrizio Romano is the oracle on these things, and his latest update on the developing saga squarely keeps Chelsea in the race. Arsenal remain front runners, with Mikel Arteta having identified the 22 year old as a top target.

Chelsea, as ever, are said to want to try to include players in the deal in part exchange. This could create an interesting advantage, as Calafiori has a sell-on clause in the deal which took him to Bologna meaning that his old club Basel will get a lot of any money that the Italian club receive when they sell him.

Chelsea giving less in cash and more in terms of players would help Bologna circumvent that and get a better deal. The fact that they’re playing in the Champions League could make them a tempting destination for a number of Blues squad players who may be feeling they’re getting squeezed out by this summer’s arrivals.

A price tag becoming clear

In the same feature, Romano also went into some detail about the potential price tag on the defender – Bologna would want “around €50m” for their prize asset. If Arsenal really do push hard for him, and the interest from other linked clubs like PSG and Juventus remains, that could even go higher too.

That’s a huge sum for a player in a position where Chelsea already have a lot of options. But as we’ve seen even just in the last few days with the signing of Kiernan Dewbsury-Hall, the sporting directors move in mysterious ways and it’s sometimes hard to know what their plan is even as it’s unfolding.