Valencia have emerged as the frontrunners to sign Chelsea's Trevoh Chalobah on a season-long loan after he excelled in pre-season.
Like Thomas Tuchel, the Liga giants have been impressed with the youngster's season at Lorient in Ligue 1 last year along with his pre-season performances at Stamford Bridge.
Tuchel has told Chelsea not to sell the 22-year-old at any cost and that he will strongly consider promoting him from the loan group to his squad next season.
What does it mean for Kounde?
Chalobah has been playing at centre back for Chelsea during pre-season with many players missing warm-up matches due to their participation in international tournaments.
However, after Chelsea secure Romelu Lukaku from Inter for £98 million ($136m), they will continue to go for Sevilla defender Jules Kounde.
Chelsea will look to sell Kurt Zouma for between £20m ($28m) and £30m ($42m) as well as loaning out Chalobah to create that space.
West Ham have already seen an approach reject by both Chelsea and the player, which fell short of both parties' expectations.
Who else could leave Stamford Bridge?
Tammy Abraham has interest from Arsenal, Atalanta and Roma after seeing the Blues spend so much on a central striker. However, none of the three clubs want to pay the £40m asking price.
Roma are searching for a possible replacement for Edin Dzeko, who could be Inter's answer to replace Lukaku this summer.
Marcos Alonso or Emerson Palmieri could be sold in the latter stages of the transfer window with both players having already been offered in swap deals for other players.
Similarly, Kenedy, Matt Miazga, Davide Zappacosta, Danny Drinkwater, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Ross Barkley are all on the transfer list.
Genk remain locked in talks with Chelsea over signing Ike Ugbo for around £5m ($7m) but haven't yet come to terms over the financial package in protracted talks.
Armando Broja has loan interest from Southampton after they lost Danny Ings to Aston Villa in a £25m ($35m) deal. Chelsea are continuing their attempts to renew the contracts of both Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen. Dujon Sterling will likely renew his contract and be sent on loan.
Further reading
- The latest on Lukaku joining Chelsea
- Who could Tammy Abraham sign for this summer?
- Jorginho reacts to Lukaku talk
