The Blues are able to register new players in January after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) saw their transfer ban, which had already been partially served, halved.
Manager Frank Lampard has reservations about making signings as a knee-jerk reaction to that, but he also recently confirmed that a creative player to replace what was lost from the squad when Eden Hazard moved to Madrid in summer is a January target.
“It is quite clear in the summer we lost Eden Hazard who has been a huge part of scoring and creating for us in the last few seasons. We need more competition in those creative areas,” he said.
Chelsea will have to assess whether Isco is the answer to that problem. According to the Daily Mirror, the Real player has been offered to the Stamford Bridge club for £44m.
The 27-year-old has endured something of a rollercoaster career in Madrid, at times being a key player and at others struggling to even get in the team.
So far this season, Isco has been in and out of the Real team when fit, and missed the whole of September with a muscle injury. He has started just five La Liga games, although one of those was the recent Clásico against Barcelona at Camp Nou.
The second part of the Mirror’s story is that Real are offering Isco to make room for Tottenham midfielder Christian Eriksen, who has long been linked with a move to Los Blancos.
The implication is that Real will look to do both deals next month, although it is certainly debatable as to whether they would make a cash offer for Eriksen so soon before his Spurs contract is due to expire, when he would then become a free agent.
Real, and indeed any other non-English club, will be permitted to hold formal pre-contract talks with Eriksen as of 1 January. That could see him secure a summer deal in advance.
90min recently learned that Eriksen is keeping his options open in the expectation that he will have such offers to consider from almost every big club in Europe, including the likes of
Juventus, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, in addition to Real.
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Source : 90min