Scouting 3 Potential Summer Transfer Targets for Chelsea
Jose Mourinho has his eyes set on Chelsea successfully defending their Premier League title next season and top of the list of his other targets is success in the Champions League.
To do that, Chelsea must strengthen.
"I want a striker, because we lost our legend [Didier Drogba]," he said at the recent launch of BT Sport's European football channel for 2015/16 (per International Business Times).
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"[We also need] a defender and a midfield player to give a little bit more competitiveness to the squad, bring some new blood in, put some players a little bit under pressure."
Those three positions will add to the spine of this Chelsea squad, strengthening in key areas where the Blues were perhaps short at times in 2014/15.
With that in mind, Bleacher Report runs the rule over a defender, midfielder and striker who may well catch the Chelsea manager's eye this summer.
Raphael Varane
Position: Defender
Club: Real Madrid
Age: 22
Potential fee: £22 million
Is there a hotter defender in European football right now than Raphael Varane?
It seems like folly, but despite his reputation, the rumours surrounding Varane's future at the Bernabeu refuse to go away.
And whenever a move from La Liga is mentioned, Chelsea are never too far away from the conversation.
Only this week Varane was reportedly interested in listening to offers from those clubs interested in signing him. According to Metro, Varane is ready to leave Real Madrid, which will put Chelsea on alert.
What Mourinho is looking for this summer isn't a player who needs time to gain experience and develop. He has Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen already filling those slots in his squad.
Mourinho needs the finished article and Varane is all but that.
His relative youth means there are still facets to his game that will improve with time, yet here is a player with Champions League experience and one who is familiar with consistently playing at the highest level.
John Terry may well have a contract that sees him through to the end of next season, but if Mourinho can uncover the defender who will be his rock for the next decade, he will not think too hard about whether or not Terry continues to play on beyond that deal.
We've seen that ruthless side of Mourinho in his decision to choose Thibaut Courtois as his No. 1 goalkeeper at Stamford Bridge.
Petr Cech is one of Mourinho's most-trusted lieutenants at Chelsea, but it accounted for little when the time came and the manager had to make plans for the future.
Courtois is the future, Cech the past.
Mourinho's cemented the future in that regard and now he'll be looking at the other areas of his team that require adjustment. Given Terry's advancing years, the heart of the defence is the most in need of being addressed.
Varane is one of Europe's hottest young properties. Fast forward a few years and he'll be among the hottest properties. Period.
The Frenchman isn't a like-for-like replacement for Terry. Whereas Terry relies on his reading of the game and physicality to marshal strikers, Varane is more athletic.
If we're looking for comparisons with Chelsea defenders, he's more a Ricardo Carvalho type. He's comfortable on the ball, doesn't shy away from a battle and is also capable in the air.
That doesn't mean he can't replace Terry when the time comes, though. The mistake would be to suggest Chelsea must find John Terry 2.0.
Gary Cahill is still young enough to have a future at Stamford Bridge and his qualities would complement Varane. As would Varane's compatriot Zouma, who has excelled in his first full season as a Chelsea player.
Varane's all-round game is strong, and for the Premier League, let alone Chelsea, he would slot in perfectly.
| Appearances | Goals | Tackle success | Fouls | Aerial duels won | Yellow cards | Red cards |
| 27 | 0 | 60% | 12 | 72 | 1 | 0 |
Antoine Griezmann
Position: Midfielder
Club: Atletico Madrid
Age: 24
Potential fee: £43 million
Moving across the Spanish capital, the future of Antoine Griezmann at Atletico Madrid is going to be big news this summer.
It already is, with talk of his £43 million buy-out clause.
It's still a big fee, but knowing the ceiling price for any bid makes him attainable for any clubs interested, of which Chelsea are according to a host of newspapers, including the Telegraph.
Atletico can try all they want to strongly defend their position when it comes to Griezmann's transfer, but that clause means the power is out of their hands. If Chelsea match it, Griezmann will hold the cards on whether he moves or not.
The big appeal for the 24-year-old is what he would add to this Chelsea team: goals.
Outside of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard, no other Chelsea player scored into double figures for the club last season.
Sure, when you have Hazard and Costa finishing off moves, most managers wouldn't worry. But when you're Jose Mourinho and are targeting much more than domestic dominance, it's a problem.
All those clubs with Champions League aspirations have goalscorers throughout their attack.
We know about Barcelona's trio, while Real Madrid have exactly the same, as do Bayern Munich.
Chelsea can match those teams to a man elsewhere, but they lack the firepower needed to win the Champions League again.
Oscar, Willian, Cesc Fabregas and Juan Cuadrado do not score enough goals. It's a problem.
Griezmann found the back of the net 22 times for Atletico last season, and before that, he scored 19 in 2013/14 for Real Sociedad.
He knows where the goal is, and if Mourinho is to upgrade on his options in attacking midfield, it's the goals return he will be looking for.
Griezmann offers more, too. He's a real threat when in possession, and despite picking up just three assists for Atletico last term, he is involved in so much of what Diego Simeone's team creates in attack.
Playing in behind Diego Costa or out wide to allow Willian or Hazard to play more centrally, Griezmann has the potential to take Chelsea to the next level.
| Appearances | Goals | Assists | Chances created | Shot accuracy | Passing accuracy | Fouls suffered |
| 37 | 22 | 3 | 22 | 57% | 79% | 30 |
Charlie Austin
Position: Striker
Club: Queens Park Rangers
Age: 25
Potential fee: £15 million
Charlie Austin's rise from non-league football to the Premier League is a great rags-to-riches story.
After joining League 1 Swindon Town in 2009, it took him just five years to find his way into the top flight. He didn't just make up the numbers last term, either; he broke the mould.
Queens Park Rangers finished bottom of the Premier League. They were eight points off the pace to stay up, scoring just 42 goals all season.
Austin scored 18 of them—almost half.
It was a remarkable return, one made even more so by the fact it was his first year among the elite.
Austin didn't come through a swanky academy, he wasn't pampered on the way to the top. He got there with nothing less than hard work and graft.
It's a trait Jose Mourinho will appreciate, which is why it's perhaps surprising that only this week Chelsea were being linked with the QPR man.
According to the Telegraph, now that talk of a move for Radamel Falcao has gone cold, Austin is a very real target for Chelsea.
And why wouldn't he be?
With Diego Costa as the standout talent in Chelsea forward ranks, Mourinho isn't looking for a player to replace the Spanish international.
What Chelsea need instead is a striker who can support Costa throughout the season, alongside Loic Remy. Mourinho needs to be able to rest Costa at times to guard against injury, confident he has strikers who can still perform when Costa doesn't have to.
Big names like Falcao cause problems. Not because of his attitude or professionalism but more because he knows he should be playing every week. Regardless of the disappointing year he just experienced at Old Trafford, we know enough about the Colombian to understand he's better than the four goals he scored.
Austin isn't at that level, although his 18 goals last season suggest he isn't too far off, either.
He can score goals, is a threat and defenders do not like playing against Austin.
Indeed, he complements what Chelsea already have and, as such, would slot in well to this squad.
It's not about him being ranked second or third behind Costa but more about him playing a role at different times of the season in order for Chelsea to have enough to get through the campaign without relying on certain star names.
And besides, he's English. With just Gary Cahill and John Terry as the Englishmen in Chelsea's first team, Mourinho needs to hike up that quota.
| Appearances | Goals | Assists | Chances created | Shot accuracy | Passing accuracy | Fouls suffered |
| 35 | 18 | 5 | 23 | 67% | 66% | 44 |
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.
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