Chelsea enter transfer race to sign Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves in £38m January deal

Chelsea are reportedly interested in signing Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves during the January transfer window.

Chelsea's titles hopes have been hampered after dropping points against Wolves, Everton and West Ham in their last four Premier League games.

As a result, Thomas Tuchel is said to be eager to bolster his midfield options by adding Neves to his ranks.

According to TodoFichajes, Chelsea have registered an interest in Neves after being impressed with his performances following his transfer from Porto in 2017.

However, Neves still has two-and-a-half years remaining on his contract at Molineux. Therefore, Wolves will reportedly demand £38m for the midfielder in the January window.

Nevertheless, Tuchel could be open to spending the money on Neves - given the fact N'Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic have all missed games this season through injury.

Tuchel has also lost faith in Saul Niguez after struggling to make a major impact since joining Chelsea on loan from Atletico Madrid at the end of the summer transfer window.

Therefore, Chelsea may move for Neves - who has featured 194 times in the Premier League for Wolves and has scored 21 goals in all competitions.

However, it may be difficult to get hold of Neves as Wolves boss Bruno Lage previously referred to him as a 'top player'.

'Midfielders are very important and Jorginho is one of the best in that position at the moment' said Lage ahead of Sunday’s match against Chelsea.

'If you look, every time they get pressed, they always look to find Jorginho and he will find spaces in front. He's very clever in that way.

'When I've watched him play that position, you can learn, especially when he's playing in their half of the pitch, in the way he puts his body and starts to look right to left to find the spaces before passing the ball.

'So that's how he's very clever, playing that way in that position when they're playing in their half of the pitch and with a lot of pressure.

'But Ruben is a top player too. Our job is to take the best from the players and we're very happy with him.

'He provided a big assist for [Romain] Saiss against Brighton and only the top players can do that.

'He could see the defenders were moving, but could see where the space was and could hit the pass at the right speed and at the right angle for Saiss to score. These are the little things that make some players better than others.'