Chelsea are close to striking a £50million deal with Leicester City for the signing of England international Ben Chilwell.
Manager Frank Lampard has long considered the 23-year-old his first-choice target at left-back, a position identified as a problem since the early days of his reign.
The Blues have been tracking Chilwell since before January, but held reservations over the fee, with Leicester having initially hoped to bank around £80m - similar to that Manchester United paid for Harry Maguire last year.
However, given Chilwell's desire to join Lampard's project at Chelsea and the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on clubs, the Foxes dropped their asking price, as revealed by Standard Sport in June.
It is thought Leicester are comfortable letting one high-profile player go per summer, as has been the case with Riyad Mahrez and Maguire in previous years.
Chilwell would add to an already impressive summer for Chelsea, who have not signed a player for the last two windows owing to a transfer ban and then a failure to land certain targets in January after the Uefa sanction was shortened.
Forwards Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech have already been signed, while the club are also pushing to land a deal for Bayer Leverkusen's Kai Havertz.
Lampard and director Marina Granovskaia have certainly made up for the lack of arrivals in the last window.
Chilwell missed the final five games of last season due to an injury, which - according to reports - will keep him out for around three more weeks.
