In the latest transfer news Edouard Mendy to Chelsea, while Thiago Alcantara to Manchester United is on the cards, with Thiago Alcantara to Liverpool is also an option.
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L’Equipe in France are reporting that Chelsea have now made Rennes goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, 28, their top target and the transfer is progressing, as Rennes have lined up PSG goalkeeper Alphonse Areola to come in on loan. Sky Sports in the UK also believe Chelsea have ended their interest in Lille’s Mike Maignan as the Ligue 1 club want $41 million for Maignan.
Per the report, Chelsea are in talks with Rennes about a second bid for Mendy after their initial offer in the region of $20 million was rejected. Whatever he ends up costing, it will certainly be a lot cheaper than the likes of Jan Oblak, Dean Henderson, Nick Pope and Andre Onana would have been this summer.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the goalkeeper situation at Chelsea this season as Frank Lampard clearly doesn’t rate Kepa Arrizabalaga (who is still the most expensive goalkeeper on the planet) and dropped him for veteran Willy Caballero on multiple occasions last season.
Petr Cech (now a technical advisor at Chelsea) played for Rennes before he became a legend at Chelsea and he has backed Kepa to fight for his position at Chelsea as it appears the Spanish goalkeeper will remain at Stamford Bridge for the time being. Mendy is a reliable goalkeeper who was a star for Rennes in 2019-20 and is a Senegalese international.
Bringing in Mendy to compete with Kepa seems to be the way Chelsea want to go for now, quite simply because they will struggle to sell Kepa on a permanent basis this summer. He’s a decent enough goalkeeper but plenty of errors have cost Chelsea and given their struggles defensively last season, they need a solid goalkeeper to settle things down.
With Ben Chilwell, Malang Sarr and Thiago Silva signed to strengthen Chelsea’s defense, plus Kai Havertz reportedly on the way to join new arrivals Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech in attack, Lampard has upgraded his Chelsea squad massively. Bringing in a new goalkeeper is the last place he really needs to strengthen, alongside maybe another new center back as the focus will now be on players leaving Chelsea.
Moving from London to the north west of England, as Thiago Alcantara to Manchester United and Thiago Alcantara to Liverpool reports continue.
Our partners at Sky Sports in Italy say that Bayern Munich are expecting a new bid from Liverpool for Thiago, while Man United have been in talks with Thiago’s agent but not Bayern.
Liverpool still seems like the most likely destination for Thiago, who won the Champions League with Bayern and has just one year left on his contract with the Bundesliga giants.
The deep-lying playmaker is a totally different central midfielder to what Liverpool currently have as Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, James Milner and Georginio Wijnaldum (who could be heading to Barcelona) are all hard-working more defensive minded players. And then there’s Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who provide a bit more attacking intent with forward runs from central midfield. Thiago would help Liverpool control games better when opponents sit back and don’t allow them space to operate in-behind.
As for Manchester United, their interest is a little bizarre as they are close to signing Donny van de Beek and are well-stocked in central midfield. That said, when a player of Thiago’s caliber comes on the market for a relative bargain of $35 million, plenty of clubs will want to buy him.
Liverpool seems like the best fit for Thiago, though, and if Jurgen Klopp really wants him, this will surely happen in the coming days.