Chelsea’s plan to convince Everton to sell star defender John Stones has not worked out so far.
Four bids – the last of which was worth £37m – were made and rejected, but Chelsea now appear to be taking their business elsewhere.
They are now looking at Chinese international defender Zhang Linpeng, and The Telegraph reports that the Blues are confident that they can land the player known as the “Chinese Sergio Ramos”.
Zhang expressed his excitement at the possibility of playing for the Premier League giants.
“I’m very happy and very excited to finally have this formal invitation. I’ve worked hard and waited five or six years for my dream of playing overseas, and finally have recognition from the English Premier League,” Zhang said.
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Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is confident in his squad regardless of whether a deal is made.
“If I get another player before the end of the market, good. If not, I go with what we have and we have a good squad,” Mourinho said.
Defender Zhang, 26, currently plays for Guangzhou Evergrande, and he has shown moderate scoring ability as he has three goals in nine appearances for the Chinese side.
Chelsea have been more loose with their spending, as they experienced an uncharacteristically slow start to this season.
Their woes may be behind them though, as they came up with their first win of the season against West Bromwich Albion.
The Blues are hoping to shore up their defence and bring it back to the top form that propelled them in their championship run last season.
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