Chelsea To Seal €37.5m Deal For Manchester United Target This Week

The summer transfer window is now well under way and managers are working hard to strengthen their squads ahead of next season, so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip. Today, Chelsea look to have beaten Man Utd to the signing of Mehdi Benatia.

Chelsea look set to beat Manchester United to the signing of Mehdi Benatia with reports claiming the Blues will wrap up a €37.5m (£30m) deal for the Roma defender this week.

Benatia was one of the best defenders in Serie A last season after enjoying a hugely impressive debut year with Roma, where he played a key role in helping Rudi Garcia’s men finish second behind champions Juventus.

The Moroccan international has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester United in recent weeks with Louis van Gaal believed to have identified the 27-year-old as the man to build his new-look defence around at Old Trafford after failing to land Mats Hummels.

Reports over the weekend suggested that Chelsea had entered the chase for Benatia’s signature with Jose Mourinho on the look out for a replacement for David Luiz following his big-money move to PSG.

Now, the Daily Star are claiming that the West Londoners ‘are set to land’ the centre-back with a €37.5m (£30m) deal expected to be concluded before the end of this week.

The newspaper states that Mourinho turned his attention to Benatia after failing to persuade Real Madrid to sell Raphael Varane while Miranda turned down a move in favour of staying at Atletico Madrid.

It would be an excellent signing for Chelsea if these reports are accurate as the French-born ace is a superb defender, but it will be interesting to see who Mourinho’s first choice pairing will be this season if this move does go through as John Terry and Gary Cahill have formed an excellent partnership at the back.

It remains to be seen how United will respond to the news that Chelsea are set to wrap up the signing of one of their key targets, but the former champions do have some hope as Mourinho is going to have to sell one foreign player in order to bring in Benatia, as the Blues have already hit their allowed quota under Premier League rules.

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The likes of Petr Cech and John Obi Mikel have been linked with moves away, but we’ll have to see who is sacrificed to make room for Benatia if the defender does complete a switch to Stamford Bridge.