Chelsea’s three-man shortlist to replace Mateo Kovacic

Carlo Garganese

• 21 Jun 2023 19:30 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea have drawn up a three-man midfield shortlist to replace Mateo Kovacic this summer, according to Nizaar Kinsella of the Evening Standard.

Kovacic will complete a £30 million transfer to Manchester City from Chelsea this week. With a fee and personal terms agreed, all that is required for the transfer to become official is for a successful medical and other formalities.

Chelsea will now turn their attentions to replacing Kovacic, and Kinsella has pinpointed three names the Blues are looking at.

READ MORE: Premier League 2023/24 summer transfers: All the Done Deals

Who will Chelsea sign to replace Kovacic?

The primary target is Moises Caicedo of Brighton.

Chelsea already had a £60m bid rejected by Brighton for the Ecuador international.

READ MORE: Out of contract in 2023: The best free agents available on a Bosman

Caicedo wants to move to Stamford Bridge and Brighton will allow him to leave providing their asking price is met.

Kinsella says that Chelsea are not prepared to include defender Levi Colwill - who spent last year on loan at Brighton - in part exchange.

Should Caicedo not be attainable, then Chelsea have two alternative options lined up.

The first is Southampton’s Romeo Lavia, who will leave the club after they were relegated from the Premier League this past season. Arsenal are also interested in the Belgian.

The second alternative is Amadou Onana, who was one of the few success stories for an Everton team who just avoided relegation last campaign.

Chelsea are undergoing something of a midfield revolution this year. Their long-term central midfield trio of Jorginho, Kovacic and N’Golo Kante will all soon be gone.

Jorginho moved to Arsenal in January, Kovacic is on his way to City, while Kante also departs on a free transfer to Al-Ittihad.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek will also be sold this summer, while Carney Chukwuemeka, Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount also have their futures in doubt.

In recent hours, Chelsea were seperately linked in the Italian media to Milan's Sandro Tonali, who has been the subject of a big-money bid from Newcastle on Wednesday.