Chelsea transfer news: The Blues are set to be competing with Liverpool across the summer as both clubs go head-to-head for major stars.
Chelsea will be watching their Premier League rivals Liverpool extremely closely in the coming weeks and months as both sides look to make an immediate jump back into the Champions League. The two sides that finished second and third last year have had the biggest drop-off of any team in the league this season.
Part of Liverpool's massive difference is genuine overperformance and above-par, unsustainable excellence last year, that said, their tally of 67 points would only have been enough to scrape into the top four on three occasions since 2015.
Both sides have been tipped to be right up there again next year, though. The maths just doesn't equate anymore if this is the case. There are now at least seven sides that will all be heading into the season with the goal of finishing fourth and higher. Nearly half the teams involved will be disappointed.
Meanwhile Brighton and Aston Villa are on the up as well. It's the most competitive that this part of the table has ever been. Chelsea and Liverpool have already taken steps to make bigger leaps than can be kept up with. The Blues have appointed Mauricio Pochettino as head coach and have widescale transfer plans to reshape the squad.
The Reds, on the other hand, have already started their overhaul with several players being allowed to leave for free and a new sporting director being appointed. In a statement, they confirmed that Jorg Schmadtke had joined the club, filling in for Julian Ward and the ever-impressive Michael Edwards.
The clubs have similar interests heading into the window with central midfield a priority position. They have shown mirroring admiration and desires to sign Declan Rice in the past whilst Klopp's men are also in the running to bring Mason Mount away from his boyhood club.
“It wasn’t a good move, in hindsight,” Schmadtke told Kicker about allowing a teenage Osimhen to leave Wolfsburg for just £3m ($3.7m). “When I came, he was limping and running in circles. I was told that the strikers we had weren’t good enough. The most important lesson is that you have to be patient with some transfers.”