Roman Abramovich will give the funds to Frank Lampard to take Chelsea’s summer spending well north of £ 200 million if the Blues can secure deals for the manager’s three main goals. The Chelsea owner has already sanctioned over £ 80m in spending on RB Leipzig and Ajax’s Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech respectively.
The two are essentially the direct replacement for seniors Ali Willian and Pedro, who were allowed to leave Stamford Bridge with free transfers.
But they also add an extra quality to Chelsea’s attack as Lampard looks to turn his team into a Premier League title contender.
Investments are needed to close the 33-point gap with champions Liverpool, while second-placed Manchester City was also 15 points higher than Chelsea.
And according to the Daily Mirror, Lampard is plotting three big signings – with Bayer Leverkusen forward Kai Havertz being the current priority.
Talks are well underway between the two clubs with Havertz who thought he had already agreed on the terms to sign a five-year contract in West London.
But the two clubs are far apart in the assessments of the 21-year-old German international, Chelsea who want to conclude a deal between 60 and 70 million pounds.
Leicester’s Chilwell is his left-back goal, despite Ajax’s Nicolas Tagliafico being a cheaper alternative, priced at around £ 20m.
With the Foxes having sold Harry Maguire to Manchester United for a world record of £ 80m a year ago, they are expected to charge a similar rate for his England teammate.
The 23-year-old Chilwell Academy graduate won’t be able to leave Leicester cheaply, but Lampard is determined to take him to the English capital.
Brendan Rodgers appear to be preparing for Chilwell’s exit with Olympiakos’ Kostas Tsimikas and Norwich’s Jamal Lewis among his targets, with Liverpool also following the pair after turning down an offer for the latter.
Meanwhile Lampard also sees West Ham’s Declan Rice as a man who helps solve his team’s defensive problems.
The Chelsea boss thinks Rice could be the answer to the center-back despite the 21-year-old having spent much of his time in the Premier League in defensive midfield. He has only started once in central defense in the league this season.
Named the Hammers’ best player of the season, West Ham have long stated that rice is not for sale at any price.
But more recently it has been suggested that it could take around £ 70 million to land Rice, who was on Chelsea’s books for eight years before being released in 2014.
Mirror says Chelsea want a new goalkeeper too, but signing a new No.1 will definitely require Kepa Arrizabalaga to leave.
The Spaniard endured an unhappy campaign and found himself dropped for Willy Caballero towards the end, including in the final FA Cup defeat to Arsenal.
Signed for just under £ 72 million by Athletic Bilbao two years ago, Chelsea no longer trust Arrizabalaga to be the first choice and could dump him.
Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak is a target for the Londoners but would require a huge outlay of over £ 100m.
Chelsea would need to agree on a swap deal involving Arrizabalaga and would not want to commit huge funds into a player more money deal.
Instead, Ajax’s Andre Onana is an alternative and could be picked up for around £ 30m, although Chelsea still have to face Arrizabalaga’s future if they opt for Cameroon.
Elsewhere, Ben White is seen as an alternative if Rice proves too expensive, even if he won’t come cheap either.
Leeds had two bids turned down for the Brighton defender with the 22-year-old having been an ever-present on their title-winning side.
Liverpool also like White, who was the subject of offers of £ 18.5m and £ 22m from Leeds this week.
Buying all of Havertz, Rice and Chilwell could see Chelsea spending close to £ 300m.
Lampard made it clear that Chelsea must spend this summer if they are to make any concrete progress in their pursuit of great honors.
The gap between them and the top teams was shown on Saturday when they were beaten 4-1 by Bayern Munich and lost their last 16 Champions League draws 7-1 overall.
Lampard said: “It is a work in progress. It’s not the norm at Chelsea over the past 15-20 years to end up where we are.
“Now is not the time to rest and not be satisfied and think where we can improve.
“We’ve had the likes of [Eden] Danger e [Diego] Costa and then [Petr] Cech [John] Terry and [Didier] Drogba and those teams were competing for the Premier League titles and making it to the semi-finals and finals, but we know that’s not the case right now.
“We lost the best player in the league to Hazard and had to develop young players.
“Normally we don’t think finishing fourth is a good thing, it’s not our level we’re used to and we’re not happy with it, but it’s a result with this group.”
