Chelsea are set to make an improved offer for Juventus defender Matthijs de Ligt with the Italian club already drawing up a list of potential replacements, according to Calciomercato.
The Italian outlet suggests that Chelsea initially planned to offer one of their players as part of the deal for the 22-year-old centre-back.
While Juventus football director Federico Cherubini is said to like Timo Werner, the club would prefer a cash-only deal.
Having been aware of the Netherlands international’s desire to leave Turin this summer, Juventus are now reportedly open to selling the player.
Calciomercato claims that Chelsea would likely agree to such a deal and are expected to make a bid in the region of €65million (£56m) to €70m (£60m) for De Ligt.
The former Ajax star has two years left in his contract with Juventus, which includes a €110m (close to £95m) release clause.
Juventus have even begun looking at potential replacements for De Ligt, with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Torino’s Gleison Bremer described as Massimiliano Allegri’s preferred targets.
Chelsea could face problems offloading players
One of the drawbacks of such a deal is that Chelsea could spend more time finding suitors for players such as Werner, whom they reportedly plan to sell this summer.
This does not necessarily rule out the possibility of Juventus and Chelsea’s striking a separate deal for Werner or Christian Pulisic.
In fact, there are a few advantages of completing separate deals rather than a player-plus-cash deal, especially for Juventus, including player amortisation.
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