{"id":20755,"date":"2026-07-24T01:30:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20755"},"modified":"2026-07-24T01:30:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T01:30:51","slug":"chelsea-have-added-third-midfielder-to-list-of-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=20755","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Have Added Third Midfielder To &#8216;List&#8217; Of Targets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<article>\n<p><strong>Chelsea are weighing up a move for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, according to reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Writing on his Substack, journalist Simon Phillips named the Cameroon international as being among the players on the Blues\u2019 \u201cconsideration list\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Xabi Alonso\u2019s side are keen on reinforcing the middle of the park before the transfer window closes.<\/p>\n<p>They have already had a \u00a364m bid rejected for Bournemouth\u2019s <strong>Alex Scott<\/strong>and Crystal Palace\u2019s Adam Wharton has been on the radar for many months, but the potential pursuit of Baleba is a fresh development.<\/p>\n<h2>A Premier League rival are keen on the Chelsea target<\/h2>\n<p>Baleba was pursued by Manchester United last summer. The Red Devils had seemingly agreed personal terms with the player, but they then baulked at paying Brighton\u2019s asking price, which was reportedly above \u00a3100m.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sra_unit\"><link rel=\"stylesheet\" id=\"block-sra\" href=\"https:\/\/chelseanews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/snack-related-articles\/dist\/css\/snack-related.min.css?230424-120159\" type=\"text\/css\" media=\"all\"\/>\n<aside class=\"sra-group sra-related-list\">\n<h2 class=\"sra-group-head\">Most Read on Chelsea News<\/h2>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p>Michael Carrick\u2019s side had subsequently moved on to different targets, with Roma\u2019s Manu Kone, Real Madrid\u2019s Eduardo Camavinga and Fulham\u2019s Sander Berge having been looked at.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Red Devils have reportedly retained an interest in Baleba, which could complicate things for Chelsea if they do decide to make a move for the midfielder over the coming days and weeks.<\/p>\n<h2>How much would Baleba cost?<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"c78749ece7fd074ea5dc1889e7c53f0f\" v=\"f216f6d5d0b6ef819f6e02bf8357cefd\" image-id=\"esmeLiTjNMAP\" theme=\"iy-theme\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; aspect-ratio: 1.500157678965626; max-width: 4757px;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><br \/>Brighton are notoriously tough negotiators, as the Blues have found out to their cost, but the midfielder had a pretty poor 2025\/26 campaign for the Seagulls.<\/p>\n<p>Baleba has publicly admitted that speculation about his future did distract him, and he struggled to replicate the form that had attracted the attention of bigger clubs.<\/p>\n<p>The 22-year-old is not expected to cost close to \u00a3100m, but he will still not be available on the cheap, with reports suggesting a figure of \u00a380m or more may be needed to secure his signature.<\/p>\n<p>Considering Scott and Wharton could cost similar figures, much may depend on Alonso and which midfielder would better fit his system and style of play.<\/p>\n<\/article><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea are weighing up a move for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, according to reports. Writing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}