West Ham United and Crystal Palace are reportedly interested in signing Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah during the summer transfer window.
Chalobah, 25, has fallen down the Blues’ pecking order of late following the arrival of Tosin Adarabioyo earlier this summer. The centre-back was left out of his club’s pre-season tour of the United States.
According to Sky Sports, West Ham United have identified Chalobah as a key defensive target this summer. They also supervise Mats Hummels, Jean-Clair Todibo and Oumar Solet, among others.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace are also hoping to add Chalobah to their squad as they could lose Marc Guehi this summer, according to The Telegraph. They have been told to spend £25m on Chalobah’s tug-of-war.
Chalobah, who has a contract with his boyhood club until June 2028, is currently training away from Chelsea’s first team ahead of the new season. Last season he played seventeen league games for his club.
In total, the right-footed, versatile defender played eighty games for Chelsea. He scored five goals and provided one assist.
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca reflects on the Blues’ recent sub-par defensive performances
Following his side’s 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid on August 6, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca shared his thoughts on his team’s lack of defensive prowess. He said (h/t football.london):
“It’s a problem we’ve been trying to solve from pre-season, from day one. One of my first meetings with the team was about the number of goals we conceded last year with a very high defensive line. It’s something we’re working on. trying to work.” Today we were there offensively… the patterns are there defensively [and] I don’t just mean the defensive line, but in general all the players.”
When asked about the Blues’ high defensive line, Maresca replied:
“It’s a habit. We don’t work on defensive lines that high. It’s a habit from last year, or years ago; I don’t know. We try to lower the defensive line a little bit, usually about four or five meters, just to We already conceded a lot of goals with this problem last year. Hopefully we can solve it quickly.”
Chelsea have conceded 12 goals in five pre-season games so far.
Under former Blues manager Mauricio Pochettino, the west London team scored 76 goals in 51 games in all competitions last season.
Edited by Debkalpa Banerjee
