Chelsea and Manchester City will do battle over Juventus midfielder Miralem Pjanic in the summer according to reports in Italy, with the London side even prepared to offer up Jorginho in a bid to steal the deal.
Pjanic, once viewed as one of the leading midfielders on the planet, has seen his stock fall somewhat under Maurizio Sarri.
He has appeared regularly this season but the depth of midfield options available in Turin means he is no longer an automatic starter, having been left out of their decisive clash with Inter altogether before COVID-19 shut down Italian football.
PSG were reported earlier this week to be weighing up a bid for the accomplished 29-year-old, with the sense growing in Italy that both he and the club are prepared to go their separate ways when the window opens. And two new reports - curiously both stemming from newspaper Corriere dello Sport - add fuel to the fire.
The first, translated and broken down by from the ever-dependable Sport Witness, assesses claims in Thursday's print edition that both City and Chelsea are keen on his services. Focusing more on City's interest with Frank Lampard's side set up as competition, they say the player is viewed as a more 'expendable' midfield option than the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur, Blaise Matuidi and even Aaron Ramsey, and Pep Guardiola's side are keen to make a deal happen.
The Mirror, zero in on Chelsea's reported interest - with Jorginho to be offered as a makeweight in a potential deal. They seem to be sourcing a different report from the paper which they haven't directly linked to, and it's said that it is in fact Juve who will propose a deal that would take Pjanic to Stamford Bridge - with Jorginho going in the opposite direction.
Jorginho, as we all know, is a favourite of Sarri's, who worked with him at Napoli before taking him to London. He is said to be keen to reunite with his former boss for a third time, while it's speculated that a straight swap deal could 'suit all parties.'
Manchester City, strangely enough, were interested in Jorginho prior to joining Chelsea in 2018, so this one has 'weird love triangle' written all over it.
Source : 90min