Chelsea '72 hours away from Matthijs De Ligt deal' but defender has heart elsewhere

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Chelsea's new owners are finding their vision of a post Roman Abramovich future is struggling to tempt the biggest names to Stamford Bridge.

Already, they are having to offer premium sums to try to get clubs to lean on their players to join them in order to raise the biggest profits possible. And at the same time, a recent departure has been less than gracious in admitting his determination to leave the club for a lengthy period.

It remains to see how that vibe transmits itself back into the Chelsea dressing room where key players could be picked off by sides looking to benefit from any unrest.

The long-running saga over Matthijs De Ligt’s future seems to be reaching some sort of conclusion, with Calcomercato, reporting that a deal could be struck for the Juventus centre-back within the next 72 hours.

Thomas Tuchel has made no secret that the former Ajax player is his prime target with Antonio Rudiger and Anders Christensen leaving the club. However, De Ligt himself has his heart set on a move to Bayern Munich - although their offer of between £60-£64m with add-ons is still way short of the Serie A side’s evaluation.

Chelsea, therefore, are reported to have offered nearer to £70m in the hope of getting Juventus to put their foot down on a cut-price sale and forcing the 22-year-old to consider a Chelsea