Xinhua

Lautaro Martinez is said to be a target of Chelsea’s at the request of Mauricio Pochettino who is edging closer to becoming the Blues’ new manager.

Pochettino is set to be announced as Chelsea’s new manager soon following rounds of positive talks between himself and the club over the past few weeks, with those talks said to be advancing in the past few days.

And it seems that the Argentine is already planning who to bring into the club this summer, with Football London reporting that he wants Inter Milan’s Martinez as he looks for a new number nine to lead Chelsea’s front line.

Martinez is closing in on eclipsing the best scoring season of his career, with just three goals needed to overtake his tally of 25 goals in all competitions from last season.

The 25-year old has 19 league goals this campaign, a number only bettered by Napoli’s Victor Osimhen who has 22, so Pochettino must have something up his sleeve in terms of integrating the striker into what looks like will be his squad come the summer.

Football Insider have reported lately that Martinez could be available for £70million, with Manchester United also linked with a move for him, but a stumbling block for Chelsea will be the fact that they won’t have any European football next season as they currently reside in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

With teams who are in European competitions next season likely to register interest in Martinez, Blues fans will have to hope that if Pochettino does come to Stamford Bridge, his nationality ties to Martinez could sweeten talks to bring the player to London.

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