Direct PL rivals look to gain an advantage over Tottenham for £68m Serie A superstar

Chelsea plot to scupper Tottenham Hotspur plans for Milan Skriniar with cash plus swap deal

According to the Italian news outlet Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t The Sun), Chelsea are planning to steal a march on Tottenham Hotspur using a cash plus swap deal for Milan Skriniar. The former are willing to offer Ruben Loftus-Cheek and some cash to Inter Milan to facilitate a move for the defender.

Tottenham have already identified Skriniar as a potential option to bolster their ranks in the summer transfer window. However, they also face competition from the Blues for his services, with Paris Saint-Germain being another interested party in this pursuit. Inter are ready to sell the centre-back, which has led to the current situation.

Thomas Tuchel’s side appears to be the major competitor for Spurs in this race as they have made the Slovak a primary target for this summer. In fact, the former are looking to reduce the massive price of between £60million and £68million by proposing Loftus-Cheek in return to the Italian club.

Skriniar, out of reach for Spurs?

Skriniar is set to enter the final year of his contract this summer, which in and of itself makes his current valuation very unreasonable. Paying such a huge amount for even a superstar like him is not wise in any case, as it would seriously hamper our plans to reinforce other areas in the squad.

As such, it would be best if Antonio Conte’s side look elsewhere to improve their centre-back options ahead of the upcoming campaign. It seems that yet another Nerazzurri central defender is out of contention for us, considering how Alessandro Bastoni has already been ruled out of a summer move.

The West London club also have some advantage over us as they have many means to reduce the valuation to something feasible. The Serie A side are open to reducing the fee for Chelsea to £50million as it would negate the loan fee that is required to facilitate a return for Romelu Lukaku this summer.

And with the possible inclusion of Loftus-Cheek, that amount could potentially be lowered even further if Simone Inzaghi’s side would accept this proposal from Tuchel’s team. In any case, it would be in our best interest to look elsewhere, even if the prospect of reuniting Skriniar with Conte is exciting, to say the least.

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All is not lost as we have several other options on the shortlist as well to strengthen our backline moving forward. Lille’s Sven Botman, Roger Ibanez of AS Roma and Torino superstar Gleison Bremer are some of the centre-halves who have been recently linked with a move to N17.

Whether we will sign any of them this summer or not would need to be seen in the coming weeks.