Barcelona midfielder Philippe Coutinho appears to be the frontrunner to replace Real Madrid bound Eden Hazard at Chelsea.
Coutinho has been mentioned as a potential target for some time now, but Hazard’s impending departure will provide Chelsea with the funds required to sign him.
This is the belief of Spanish newspaper Marca, who report that as Hazard nears the Bernabeu, Chelsea could accelerate with their interest in Coutinho.
Coutinho had successfully established himself as one of the Premier League’s finest before leaving Liverpool and embarking on life as a Barca player.
All hasn’t gone for plan for the Brazilian at the blaugrana, but that’s not to say that he couldn’t go some way to replacing Hazard’s influence.
As Marca note, the major stumbling block in Chelsea’s pursuit of Coutinho is the transfer ban, which at the time of writing is still in force.
We will have to remain patient and wait for a reply from the CAS before reading too much into any transfer rumours of this kind.
