Chelsea have been linked with a move for Fredy Guarin in the January transfer window in recent months. The 27-year-old made his name with Porto and is currently plying his trade in La Liga with Inter Milan, for whom he has been in impressive form this term.

According to Metro, the Blues have stepped up their interest in the Colombian and are ready to offer Ba as bait in order to bring the 27-year-old to London. Ba has failed to recapture his Newcastle form and Blues manager Jose Mourinho is ready to sell his third-choice forward to make way for Guarin.

Inter have slapped a price tag of £16.5 million on Guarin which Chelsea are hesitant to match. Instead, they are looking at offloading Ba, who has scored just three league goals in his Chelsea career so far.

The Italian side are on the lookout for attacking reinforcements in January but coach Walter Mazzarri is unsure about Ba’s form.

It does seem that Ba will exit Chelsea in January with the Blues being linked with a move for Napoli forward Gonzalo Higuain. The Senegalese is also touted to return to West Ham to boost their survival hopes and of course I am sure the Ba to Arsenal rumors will resurface but as we know Jose is highly unlikely to be naive enough to loan a player to a title rival who could could then end up hurting him. In any case, for what it is worth I think Ba will stay but Guarin may join along with another striker.