(Football news) Benoit Badiashile will have a medical at Chelsea on Monday after the Blues reached an agreement with Monaco for a £35m deal. Considered to be one of the brightest prospects in Europe, the 21 year old defender has been on Chelsea’s radar since the summer and Graham Potter’s side also gave a medical to 18 year old Vasco da Gama midfielder Andrey Santos on Saturday. Under Todd Boehly’s consortium, Chelsea’s transfer strategy has been geared towards talented young players and they have signed Wesley Fofana (21), Carney Chukwuemeka (19), Cesare Casadei (19), David Datro Fofana (20) and Gabriel Slonina (18).

Badiashile has been a starter for Monaco since the 2019/20 season when he was only 18 years old and has become a vital part of the squad. He has made 161 appearances and has already received call-ups for the French national team, featuring in two matches in the Nations League last year. Chelsea have been in the market for a left sided centre back since the summer transfer window and saw an £80m bid for Josko Gvardiol rejected. The Blues appear to have got a bargain in Badiashile, who is a left footed defender and he 21 year old will join Kalidou Koulibaly, Wesley Fofana, Thiago Silva and Trevoh Chalobah, as centre-back options for Graham Potter.

“We want to keep improving, that’s the simple answer. We’ve had a challenging time, some ups, some downs, in terms of the previous year which is normal at any football club. But we want to stabilise, try and improve and make our supporters happy, because we know the last few weeks before the break weren’t nice for us, results suffered, performances weren’t where we wanted them to be and we have to do better than that.”

Chelsea manager Graham Potter

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