BREAKING: Chelsea agrees deal for Edouard Mendy
Chelsea seems to be taking no prisoners in its bid to insert itself into the two-horse race at the Premier League summit as it is set to complete the signing of highly-rated Rennes goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy in the coming days.
Goal reports that the highly-rated goalie is closing in on a move to Chelsea after they made a breakthrough in talks on Friday, which saw the 28-year-old pull out of a training session to complete talks.
Chelsea had verbally agreed a five-year contract with Mendy, but negotiations over the Senegalese seemed locked with regard to the fee for their primary goalkeeping target.
The Blues’ previous bid was around £18m, but Daily Times gathered that the fee is expected to sum up to £25m.
Mendy was sited departing training with his agent on Friday morning, reportedly to hash out his move during an afternoon meeting with club president, Nicolas Holvec.
While Rennes could be in the market to nick Mendy’s replacement before the transfer window curtain is drawn, head coach Julien Stephan said they had no choice but to let their star man go.
“Edouard has an exceptional opportunity, humanly, we have to hear it,” Stephan said to the French media. “But we must allow time for negotiations. [A substitute?] Obviously, we are looking.”
Mendy spent just a season at Rennes, making 34 appearances in a historic season which earned the club qualification to the Champions League for the first time.
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It is believed that the Chelsea recruitment duo of Petr Cech, who now works as the technical and performance advisor, and Christophe Lollichon have played huge contributory roles in the choice of Mendy, having come from Les Rouge et Noir to Chelsea themselves.
Mendy’s arrival will create serious competition for starting places in the squad, with record signing, Kepa Arrizzabalaga and Willy Caballero already locking horns to man Frank Lampard’s goal-posts.
Kepa had struggled for form last season, making notable howlers which saw him dropped twice during the season.
The Blues record signing from Athletic Bilbao is expected to continue to compete with Mendy for Frank Lampard’s goal, unless one of the Spanish teams who are reportedly sniffing around completes a move for the Spaniard.
Mendy’s deal takes Chelsea’s summer spending to well over £200m ($252m) with Kai Havertz arriving from Bayer Leverkusen, Hakim Ziyech from Ajax and Timo Werner from RB Leipzig.
Left Back, Ben Chilwell was added to the defence from Leicester City, while there were a further two free transfers – defenders Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr, formerly of PSG and Nice.
