Chelsea have been active in the transfer window as Xabi Alonso begins to reshape his squad. With suggestions that Andrey Santos may leave, the club appears to be exploring midfield replacements. Below are five options that have featured prominently in recent coverage.<\/p>\n
Valent\u00edn Barco is expected to become the third player to swap Strasbourg for Chelsea, following Mamadou Sarr and Emmanuel Emegha. Nothing has been confirmed by either club, but Barco has already publicly bid farewell to Strasbourg and widespread reports suggest he is heading to Chelsea. The Argentina international has previously been linked with the club and is now described as a well-rounded midfielder who could fill the void left by Santos.<\/p>\n
Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace has quietly drifted down some shortlists, a change largely attributed to his reported price tag. His valuation is expected to lie between $94 million (\u00a370 million) and $134 million (\u00a3100 million). Wharton is noted for his ability to operate both offensively and defensively and is considered strong in possession, making him a natural fit for Alonso\u2019s midfield setup.<\/p>\n
Alex Scott of Bournemouth has seen his stock rise after a strong 2025\u201326 campaign. He is described as an all-rounder who enjoys dribbling as much as making a crunching tackle. Bournemouth are keen for Scott to sign a new contract, and his current terms run until 2028. If they are to sell for a fair fee, this summer could be their best opportunity.<\/p>\n
Pablo Barrios of Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, 23, is presented as a modern midfielder who can play higher or deeper and combines playmaking with defensive discipline. He has more than 100 appearances at a high level. Convincing Atl\u00e9tico to sell would be difficult, but he is seen as a long-term option with immediate quality.<\/p>\n
Finally, with suggestions that Manchester United\u2019s move for \u00c9derson has collapsed, the window could throw up further opportunities for Chelsea to act swiftly if they choose to replace Santos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five midfield targets Chelsea could pursue as they consider replacing Andrey Santos. Transfer list<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[216,1772,944],"class_list":["post-17115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-adam-wharton","tag-alex-scott","tag-andrey-santos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}