Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino believes it is ‘clear and obvious’ that the Blues must make a new signing in defence following the injury to Wesley Fofana.
Fofana has undergone surgery on an ACL injury and is facing a lengthy spell on the sidlines, leaving Chelsea with four senior centre-backs: Thiago Silva, Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah, the latter of whom has been heavily linked with an exit.
A £38m deal has been struck with Monaco to sign France international Axel Disasi, a former teammate of Badiashile, and while Pochettino refused to discuss the 25-year-old, he acknowledged a defensive reinforcement is necessary.
“With Fofana’s injury, I think it is obvious that maybe we need to reinforce this area,” he told the media after Sunday’s 2-0 friendly victory over Fulham. “It is clear.”
Pochettino is also hoping for senior reinforcements in midfield and wants more than the proposed deal to sign 19-year-old Rennes starlet Lesley Ugochukwu, who is expected to move to Stamford Bridge but could head to sister side Strasbourg on loan.
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“We need experience in midfield,” he explained. “I have the information you have. My information is a player that is from France that maybe they sign with the idea to send on loan.”
One area in which Pochettino is not so desperate for signings is at striker. New faces Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku have both enjoyed impressive pre-season campaign thus far, with the latter bagging his third goal of the summer against Fulham, although the Chelsea boss remains open to another signing up front.
“I think we are happy with the performance and they can complement each other really well,” he said of his two strikers. “Yes, of course, maybe we can add some different profile or different player who can help us, of course we are open.
“I am so happy with both and we have younger like Mason [Burstow] today and [Armando] Broja in the UK recovering from his procedure. We need to analyse now in the next weeks until the transfer window closes. We will take the best decision for the team.”
Asked how many new signings he wants, Pochettino responded: “I don’t know because if I say numbers I can create a problem. For me it’s important, the club is working really hard to improve all of the areas, the right profiles to make the squad strong. The club is working really hard to find the right profile.”
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