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Chelsea need to fill the defensive void left by Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen.

Both Rudiger and Christensen departed the Blues for free this summer in favour of moves to Real Madrid and Barcelona, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, the Blues, now owned by American billionaire Todd Boehly, appear to be targeting a new centre-back as a matter of priority and one name to emerge as a candidate to arrive at Stamford Bridge is Juventus’ Matthijs De Ligt.

That’s according to a recent report from TuttoJuve, who claim the five-time Premier League winners have already offered the Old Lady £34m (€40m) plus either Timo Werner or Christian Pulisic – both of whom are admired by the Serie A giants.

Even though it feels like De Ligt has been around for a lifetime, he is still just 22-years-old, and despite struggling to replicate the same form that saw him earn a £77m transfer from Ajax three years ago, it is clear the Netherlands international still has bundles of potential and could easily grow to become one of the world’s best defenders.

Chelsea’s pursuit of De Ligt is also probably aided by the fact manager Thomas Tuchel has an incredible record of improving players and the chance to work with the former PSG boss may be too much for some players to turn down.

There is still plenty of time left in this summer’s transfer window for a potential cash plus player deal to be reached so this saga remains one to watch.

This article first appeared on Caught Offside and was syndicated with permission.

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