Enzo Maresca, Pablo Barrios, and Jude Bellingham (Photo by Richard Heathcote, Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Chelsea are reportedly planning to make an offer of around €70million for the transfer of Atletico Madrid midfielder Pablo Barrios this summer.
The talented 21-year-old has impressed in La Liga and could be a fine investment for Chelsea as they look to keep on putting together a squad containing some of the best young talents in world football.
Atletico are not keen to sell Barrios, according to Spanish outlet Fichajes, but the report states that Chelsea look prepared to come in with a big offer for the player this summer.
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The Blues already have a strong midfield pairing in the form of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo, but arguably not much depth beyond that.
Barrios could therefore be an important addition to Enzo Maresca’s squad, with Romeo Lavia’s injury problems limiting his impact since he moved to Stamford Bridge.
Pablo Barrios heading to Chelsea this summer?
Barrios looks like he has a big future ahead of him, so it makes sense that Atletico might struggle to keep hold of him for much longer.
For now it’s just Chelsea being linked, and perhaps they’ll remain the favourites for the Spain international’s signature, but it also wouldn’t be surprising if other big clubs came in for him at some point.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Barrios will push for the move as he may be happy with his role at Atletico, and a move to the Premier League would be a big change for him this early on in his career.
Given that his club don’t want to sell, it might take a big push from CFC to get this deal done, so it will be interesting to see if they also consider other midfield targets.
Liverpool have also been linked with Barrios in recent times by Todo Fichajes, though those rumours have since quietened down.
