Who Chelsea's mystery 'third target' from Premier League could be amid £39m rejected transfer bid

Few Premier League teams are likely to be as active on transfer deadline day as Chelsea – with the expected departure of midfielder Enzo Fernández likely to be the driving force for several late deals.

Manchester City are deep into negotiations over a deal for Fernández, but Chelsea are only willing to sanction the sale of the Argentine if they can secure at least one replacement. Two of their targets are known with negotiations ongoing, but The Daily Telegraph report that there is also a third “mystery” target in their sights. So what’s the state of play, and who might the third man be?

Camara & Koné among deadline day targets for Chelsea

The two midfielders that Chelsea are known to be interested in are Monaco’s Lamine Camara and Roma’s Mateus Koné, and the Blues are in active negotiations for both players.

Sky Sports News have reported that a bid for Senegal international Camara worth up to £39m has already been rejected, with Monaco expected to hold out for more – having already sold Aladji Bamba to Newcastle, the Ligue 1 side are loathe to sell another key midfielder at the end of the transfer window.

That won’t stop Chelsea from continuing negotiations, but does make a deal harder to complete. It’s not clear exactly how much they will need to offer for the 22-year-old, or how much they are prepared to spend. Several other Premier League sides have also expressed an interest in Camara, although none are expected to make an offer at this late stage.

Roma, meanwhile, are also holding out for a deal worth at least €60m (£51m) for Koné, a French international who played five matches at this summer’s World Cup. Chelsea have yet to meet the asking price – which is viewed as being above market value – but may yet do so.

Chelsea are likely to be ready to overpay in order to find a suitable replacement for Fernández, who made his desire to leave Stamford Bridge clear in the spring and was subsequently suspended for two matches after stating that he wanted to move to Real Madrid on a podcast. He isn’t going to get the exact move that he wanted, but it’s likely that he’s a Manchester City player by the time the deadline passes at 23:00 BST.

The mystery third target on Chelsea’s radar

The only lead The Daily Telegraph claim to have on the identity of the ‘mystery’ third target is that he plays in the Premier League but isn’t Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, a player they had been monitoring – and that makes sense given the profile of the players they are targeting.

Both Camara and Koné are aggressive box-to-box midfielders in broadly the same vein as Fernández himself, and Chelsea are expected to seek players who can immediately take over the Argentine’s role in Xabi Alonso’s midfield. Any deals for more attack-minded players such as Gibbs-White would be separate.

There are a handful of players who fit the bill that are being monitored by Chelsea’s transfer team, foremost among them being Bournemouth’s Alex Scott. The Cherries have stood firm in the face of interest from other teams and have previously rejected a bid from Chelsea which was believed to be worth over £60m.

Scott has refused to sign a new contract at the Vitality Stadium, however, and some reporters have suggested that Bournemouth may accept bids of around £85m. That’s higher than Chelsea’s valuation of the player, but it could be a deal they consider given that they are expected to earn around £120m from the sale of Fernández.

Other players who have been scouted by Chelsea in recent months include Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton, whose future has been the source of constant speculation as several other key players leave Crystal Palace. The 22-year-old would likely cost at least as much as Scott, which has prevented Chelsea from making a bid in the past, but he remains a player of considerable interest and the Blues could opt to stump up should Camara or Koné prove impossible to obtain.

While Scott and Wharton are long-standing targets, one more affordable option may be Arsenal’s Martín Zubimendi. The Spaniard’s place in Mikel Arteta’s plans is in doubt after the arrival of Bruno Guimarães, and sources suggest that the Gunners are open to offers - with TalkSport now suggesting that Zubumendi is being considered as an option by Chelsea.

The size of the transfer fee required to sign Zubimendi is unclear, with speculative estimates in the gossip columns ranging from £50m to £75m. With Bournemouth and Crystal Palace both likely to resist attempts to sign Scott and Wharton respectively, however, they may find Arsenal easier to deal with. That alone could make a move more plausible.

As it stands, Zubimendi is perhaps the most likely candidate for a late deal given that any bid for Scott or Wharton would be fraught with complications – but the identity of the ‘third man’ remains uncertain with just hours left in the window. Deals for Camara and Koné appear to be the priority, and we may never discover their identity should Chelsea succeed in signing one or both.