Exclusive Ornstein: Chelsea ‘contact’ Leicester for midfielder who could cost €40m

David Ornstein dropped an exclusive bombshell this afternoon which claims Chelsea have contacted Leicester City about Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the midfielder who was a key part of their successful side under recent Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.

Ornstein points out that “no official offer has been made yet”, but that the Blues would be the only club that could tempt the 25-year-old away from his boyhood club. He is seen as the “perfect fit” for the style Maresca wants to bring to Stamford Bridge.

Transfermarkt values ​​him at €30m and we’d expect it to be upwards of €40m or more when all is said and done considering he has 3 years left on his contract. As usual, Chelsea would likely offer a higher fee in exchange for being able to share the costs, and Leicester would be inclined to accept a good offer given that they need to balance their books before the Premier League’s spending rules allow them to destroy

Like most Chelsea fans, we are quite dismayed and confused by this news. We already have plenty of good central midfielders in similar form to Dewsbury-Hall. Why are we trying to sign him now?

The unfortunate reality is that this probably indicates one of them will go – and most people’s money would be on fan favorite Conor Gallagher, whose future has been pretty much in doubt since joining the team.

But even assuming Gallagher goes – isn’t the rest of the group on the cards good enough? What’s the point of buying Cesare Casadei, Andrey Santos and Carney Chukwuemeka (not to mention the others) if you’ll never trust them in the first team? Is Romeo Lavia substituted before playing a game? Is Lesley Ugochukwu now on the loose?