The players Chelsea are offering Juventus for Matthijs de Ligt
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 23 May 2023 08:46 CDT
- 3 min read
Chelsea and Juventus are in negotiations over the possible transfer of Matthijs de Ligt.
FootballTransfers understands that the two clubs held primary talks a few days ago and will now hold official talks over the next couple of days to discuss a possible deal.
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Chelsea have made De Ligt their primary transfer target for the summer window.
The Blues plan to sign two top centre-backs after losing both Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen on free transfers.
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The duo see their deals run out at the end of this month, with Rudiger deciding to join Real Madrid and Christensen moving to Barcelona.
De Ligt is Chelsea’s ideal option for centre-back, although the costs involved in the deal do not make negotiations easy.
Juventus would ideally like to keep De Ligt. They have already lost Giorgio Chiellini on a free transfer to Los Angeles FC, while Leonardo Bonucci is now 35 and increasingly injury-prone.
The Bianconeri already plan to sign a centre-back this summer, so they know that selling De Ligt would mean they have to buy two.
But Juventus are also wary that De Ligt’s contract expires in 2024, so unless he agrees to sign a new deal they will consider selling him this summer for the right price.
Whether that price is met by Chelsea or other interested parties is the big question.
De Ligt has a release clause that comes into play on July 1 of around €120 million.
Juventus will not demand this is paid in full but they are expected to ask for around €90-100m.
Chelsea are not prepared at the moment to pay such a huge fee and are thus set to offer Juve players in part-exchange in order to bring the fee down.
The players Chelsea are prepared to offer Juventus are Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic, Emerson Palmieri, Hakim Ziyech and possibly Jorginho.
Juve would prefer a full cash sum as they know that a large chunk of what they make will have to be used on signing a replacement for De Ligt.
The next couple of days will be key in deciding De Ligt’s future at Juventus, while Chelsea are also looking around at other central defenders regardless of whether a deal for the Dutchman is successful.
There have been reports on Tuesday that Chelsea are interested in signing Inter’s Milan Skriniar and Man City’s Nathan Ake.
