{"id":329521,"date":"2025-12-22T09:26:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329521\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T09:26:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T09:26:05","slug":"chelsea-could-spoil-liverpools-plans-to-replace-virgil-van-dijk-with-66m-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/329521\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea could spoil Liverpool&#8217;s plans to replace Virgil van Dijk with \u00a366m star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Right now, Chelsea and Liverpool are battling each other for a Champions League spot.<\/p>\n<p>Both teams sit on 29 points in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/premier-league-table\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League table<\/a>, with the former above the latter because of goal difference.<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a> and Liverpool could also do battle off the pitch as they eye the same central defender.<\/p>\n<p>Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Tosin Adarabioyo, Josh Acheampong and Levi Colwill are the centre-backs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/enzo-maresca\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Enzo Maresca<\/a> has in his squad. Fofana, Badiashile and Colwill have all had injury problems this season, though.<\/p>\n<p>          Chelsea need to make room before they can sign another centre-back. Who are you getting rid of? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">Levi Colwill is definitely untouchable \u274c<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea\u2019s list of first-team centre-backs<\/p>\n<p>Levi ColwillWesley FofanaTrevoh ChalobahBenoit BadiashileTosin AdarabioyoJosh Acheampong<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2249207502-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea celebrates scoring his team's goal with teammate Wesley Fofana\" class=\"wp-image-339095\" \/>Photo by Mike Hewitt\/Getty Images     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2252159300-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Bologna FC 1909 v FC Internazionale - Supercoppa Italiana Semifinal\" \/>Photo by Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesChelsea and Liverpool both interested in Alessandro Bastoni<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamtalk.com\/liverpool\/alessandro-bastoni-transfer-inter-milan-franculino-dju-new-target\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">TEAMtalk<\/a>, Liverpool are interested in signing Inter Milan star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/alessandro-bastoni\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alessandro Bastoni<\/a>, viewing him as a potential successor to Virgil van Dijk.<\/p>\n<p>However, the same outlet has claimed that Chelsea also have Bastoni on their radar, so the Blues could end up challenging their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/premier-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a> rivals for his signature.<\/p>\n<p>TEAMtalk\u2019s report says that Inter want \u00a366m for Bastoni, a valuation both Chelsea and Liverpool should be able to meet.<\/p>\n<p>          Is there a way back for Axel Disasi at Chelsea? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">Or do the Blues just need to cut their losses? \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"630\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2201389360-1024x630.jpg\" alt=\"Axel Disasi for Chelsea\" class=\"wp-image-309691\" \/>Photo by Andrew Kearns \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images     <\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/tag\/club-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Club World Cup<\/a> winners have been linked with the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>In August, it was claimed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/transfer-news\/chelsea-have-43m-bid-rejected-for-new-centre-back-after-enzo-marescas-pleas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea actually had a bid for Bastoni rejected<\/a>. If they do eventually get their hands on him, Maresca will be a happy man.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"690\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2239200029-1-1024x690.jpg\" alt=\"Enzo Maresca and Arne Slot before Chelsea vs Liverpool\" class=\"wp-image-328436\" \/>Photo by Liverpool FC\/Liverpool FC via Getty ImagesWhy Alessandro Bastoni would be a great fit for Enzo Maresca<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/columnist\/enzo-marescas-dream-2026-signing-is-so-obvious-after-being-let-down-by-chelseas-sporting-directors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bastoni would probably be Maresca\u2019s dream centre-back signing<\/a>. The Italy international is perfect for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/club\/manager\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea manager\u2019s<\/a> style.<\/p>\n<p>Bastoni is excellent in possession, capable of passing the ball out of defence and bringing it out.<\/p>\n<p>As per <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/75b86fb3\/Alessandro-Bastoni\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">FBref<\/a>, Bastoni completes 5.47 progressive passes, 1.88 progressive carries and 0.36 successful take-ons per 90 minutes. He ranks in the 93rd, 97th and 84th percentiles for those categories among his positional peers.<\/p>\n<p>It is no surprise that Chelsea are looking at Bastoni, but they could have to see off competition from Liverpool if they want his signature next summer. Whoever snaps up Bastoni will be getting an elite ball-playing defender.<\/p>\n<p>  Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right now, Chelsea and Liverpool are battling each other for a Champions League spot. Both teams sit on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[105380,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-329521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-alessandro-bastoni","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}