Chelsea 'reach agreement with Monaco over Benoit Badiashile transfer'

The Athletic reported on December 24th that Badiashile was Chelsea’s leading candidate as they looked to bring in a left-sided centre-back. It is a position Chelsea have been targeting since the summer.

They had agreed personal terms with Josko Gvardiol but were unable to strike a deal with RB Leipzig over a fee for the 20-year-old. Chelsea have been looking at several other young options for the position, including Eintracht Frankfurt's Evan N’Dicka and Piero Hincapie of Bayer Leverkusen.

Badiashile’s potential arrival will help reinforce a part of the Chelsea squad that suffered after Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen left on free transfers last summer.

He would join Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly, Trevoh Chalobah and Wesley Fofana in competing for the centre-back spots, with Marc Cucurella and Reece James able to play there in a back three too.

Badiashile is 6ft 4in, good on the ball, incredibly fast and has impressed by regularly stealing the ball off opponents without having to go to ground. He also has a lot of experience for someone so young, having made 135 appearances for Monaco in the past four-and-a-half seasons.