Chelsea’s £70m bid for Wesley Fofana turned down by Leicester

Chelsea have had a third bid for Wesley Fofana potentially worth about £70m rejected by Leicester City and indicated that they are willing to pay up to £60m to secure Anthony Gordon from Everton.

Thomas Tuchel has made Fofana his No 1 defensive target and Chelsea could return with a fourth offer for the Frenchman before the teams meet at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Fofana was dropped for Leicester’s defeat to Southampton last Saturday, after which Rodgers conceded the player was “not quite in the right frame of mind” to feature.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have reopened negotiations with Everton over Gordon after seeing their offer of around £45m rejected last week. It is understood that they are willing to pay up to £60m including significant add-ons for the England under-21 international, although Frank Lampard is a huge admirer of the boyhood Evertonian, as a player and a personality, and wants to build around Gordon rather than cash in on the academy graduate.

Fofana, who has communicated his desire to depart for Chelsea, missed a training session last week and trained alone on another day. “The club has invested in him and in his time here he’s been absolutely brilliant,” Rodgers said. “But you have to set a standard of behaviour and if it’s not quite right and your focus isn’t right, that only hurts your team-mate.”Chelsea are in talks with Internazionale over a loan move for centre-back Trevoh Chalobah on loan whilst Spezia have asked for Ethan Ampadu on loan. Fofana has been a revelation since joining from Saint-Etienne in a £36.5m deal two years ago, though his impact was limited last season after fracturing his leg in pre-season. Leicester are demanding a larger fee than they received for Harry Maguire, who was sold