After signing striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseille in a reported £33million deal on a 5 year contract Chelsea have been credited with interest in a couple of Belgium’s highly rated midfielders like Roma’s Radja Nainggolan who performed well in France in the Euro’s and seemed to be on his way to Stamford Bridge. The deal never materialised however and Chelsea have since gone on to sign the much sought after Premier League Champion N’Golo Kanté from Leicester City.

Now the Daily Mail are reporting that Chelsea are interested in want-away Belgian star Axel Witsel who is keen to depart from Zenit St Petersburg. Witsel has played over 150 games for the Russian side and has had a very successful spell with the Russians, having won the Russian Premier League title recently in 2014-2015 as well as the Russian Super Cup plus the Russian Cup only last season. The player however seems to be keen on a move away from Russia with Everton very interested in signing him as Ronald Koeman sees him as a key part of his new project at Goodison Park and Chelsea are reportedly intrigued by the midfielder too. Apparently there are 2 clubs from Italy very interested in Witsel with Juventus among them. Chelsea’s interest if true seems a little hard to comprehend given the Blues have just secured one of the most in-demand players out there in the form of French dynamo N’Golo Kanté. Witsel is a somewhat similar type of player to Kanté so buying him does not make much sense especially given the other options Chelsea have already in the form of Matic and Loftus-Cheek amongst others.

So we will have to wait and see if Antonio Conte does indeed want to sign the Belgian midfielder ahead of Everton as the Liverpool club look to have a deal agreed (reportedly in the £25-30million range) and are ready to complete the necessary formalities. Witsel looks likely to move given that he is about to enter into the final year of his 4 year contract in Russia so something has got to give as Zenit are unlikely to let him leave for nothing next year.