Chelsea make contact for £69m defender and explosive striker in mouth-watering double deal

Chelsea have told Sporting CP they want to sign Ousmane Diomande and Viktor Gyokeres – prompting the Lisbon club to tell them how much to pay.

That’s according to the Evening Standard, which claims contact has been made between the two clubs ahead of the January transfer window in view of two potential additions to the Chelsea squad.

Defence and attack are areas that Mauricio Pochettino still wants to strengthen, due to injuries in the former position and a lack of quality in the latter.

With that in mind, reports have linked them with centre-forward Gyokeres and centre-back Diomande. Now, both appear to be concrete targets.

Per the Standard, Chelsea have contacted Sporting to register their interest in both players, even though they are just two names from substantial shortlists at this stage.

However, in both cases, Sporting have insisted their release clauses must be met in full. In other words, Chelsea would have to pay £69m (€80m) for Diomande and £87m (€100m) for Gyokeres.

Combined, the total outlay would be £156m (€180m) for the double deal. Not all of that will go to Sporting, though, since they owe 20% of their profit on Diomande to his former club Midtjylland.

Sporting signed the Ivory Coast international for €7.5m rising to €12.5m, so could make a profit of between €67.5m and €72.5m by selling him for the value of his release clause.

IN DEPTH – Who is Chelsea and Arsenal target Ousmane Diomande?

That would mean them giving Midtjylland a sell-on fee between €13.5m and €14.5m. But Sporting would still be banking a significant amount of cash.

Whether or not Chelsea intend to meet the release clauses for either player remains to be seen, but they have not been averse to meeting such clauses for players they really want.

There has been plenty of big spending in the Todd Boehly era, including a couple of deals that have broken the club’s – and British football’s – transfer record.

Only time will tell what kind of sums they might put on the table for the Sporting pair, but they are players under close consideration.

Chelsea could bring Gyokeres back to England

Diomande would be a newcomer to English football, but Gyokeres has previously played in the Championship for Swansea City and – more successfully – Coventry City.

Previously on the books of Brighton but without ever getting to make his Premier League debut, the Sweden international is quickly proving himself in the Portuguese top flight (and Europa League) and if he returns to English football it would now almost certainly be in the highest tier.

At the age of 25, he is approaching the prime of his career, whereas Diomande is still one for the future – albeit making good strides already – having recently turned 20.

TEAMtalk revealed back in the autumn that Diomande was on Chelsea’s radar and also that Sporting would likely hold out for his full release clause, which has now been verified by the Standard.

Chelsea could raise funds for Diomande by selling Trevoh Chalobah from their current defensive options, as their backline continues to evolve for the long term.

READ MORE: Serie A chief ready to ‘give his jewel’ to Chelsea with €35m defender deal in the works for January