Chelsea are reportedly planning to hijack Manchester’s United attempt to sign French wonderkid Eduardo Camavinga from Ligue 1 club Rennes.
According to a report from Le Parisien, as relayed by Sports Mole, Chelsea have entered the race to sign Rennes midfield prodigy Eduardo Camavinga from under the noses of their arch-rivals Manchester United.
Camavinga has been the talk of the town for more than a year now, having enjoyed a stunning breakthrough season with Rennes during the 2019/20 term. While he did not have the same level of success in the recently concluded campaign, the 18-year-old has done more than enough to attract the interest of several top clubs across the continent, with Manchester United chief among them.
Indeed, the Red Devils are said to be keen on landing Camavinga, who has also managed to break into the France national team on the back of his performances for Rennes. Manchester United need reinforcements in the centre of the park considering that Nemanja Matic has slowly been phased out of the first-team while question marks linger over the futures of Paul Pogba as well as Donny van de Beek.
With neither Scott McTominay nor Fred are proper out-and-out defensive midfielders, bringing in someone like Camavinga to sit in front of the backline would allow Pogba to flourish, should he stay. In addition, the 18-year-old has shown good ball progression abilities as well and can perform multiple roles in the middle.
To that end, it has been claimed that Manchester United have already held talks with Rennes and are closing in on the capture of Camavinga. However, there could now be a twist in the tale as Chelsea are now ready to gazump Ole Gunnar Solskjaer & co. for the signing of the 18-year-old prodigy this summer.
Chelsea, like Manchester United, have options in plenty in the middle of the park, with N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho, along with some returning loanees like Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tiemoue Bakayoko. However, the futures of the Loftus-Cheek and Bakayoko remain uncertain, whereas Billy Gilmour’s loan exit also opens up a spot in the middle of the park.
With N’Golo Kante also not getting any younger and having battled injuries last term, it could perhaps be ideal for the Blues to put a long-term succession plan in place for the Frenchman. While Franck Kessie has been identified as a target, Camavinga, too, is more than a viable option given that Thomas Tuchel can groom him to take over from Kante in a year or two eventually.
Chelsea, to that end, have already established contact with Rennes over the possibility of signing Camavinga, who could be available on a cut-price fee as he enters the final year of his contract. Apart from the two English clubs, PSG and Real Madrid are also monitoring the situation of the teenage midfielder, but the battle seems to be mainly between the Premier League giants, with an interesting transfer race building up.
