Rio Ferdinand has suggested that Chelsea could do well to seal the transfer of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey.
The Ghana international has shone in his time in La Liga, showing that he could offer something a little different to this Chelsea side that has not looked particularly solid at the back for some time.
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The Guardian have suggested that Chelsea might be in for Partey, but for most of this summer he’s been linked as a top target for Arsenal by Sky Sports and others.
It would be a blow for the Gunners to miss out, as they urgently need to improve on players like Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi in that area of the pitch, but Chelsea would also do well to offer their back four more protection with a signing of this type.
Ferdinand talked up the possible deal on BT Sport, as quoted by the Metro, as he suggested Frank Lampard might not be entirely happy with the likes of Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic as his current options in the middle of the park.
“I think a huge thing for them is to stop conceding goals. I think Frank would have looked at it last season and three of the back four that will be playing today are new players,” Ferdinand said.
“He’ll have seen that, a lot of goals conceded and I think the most conceded in 22 years at the club. More importantly we hear reports today of Partey coming in in that central area.
“I don’t think he’s happy with the likes of Kovacic or Jorginho. You can see that because he’s chopping and changing in those positions.
“Getting someone like that in to protect the back four or five along with Kante goes a long way to nullifying the goals against.”