Axel Disasi has advised his Chelsea teammates to be killers in front of the goal. (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the Athletic (subscription required), Chelsea have reached an agreement with Ligue 1 side AS Monaco to sign defender Axel Disasi for a fee worth around £38m.
If all things go well, Disasi is set to become the second Monaco defender the Blues will sign in consecutive transfer windows. They got Benoit Badiashile in the January window for a similar price – £35m.
The former is a right-footed centre-back who can operate at right-back when required. Chelsea are bracing themselves to lose Wesley Fofana for a considerable period of time after the Frenchman did an ACL.
Disasi has the quality and profile to directly replace Fofana in the side. Chelsea do have Trevoh Chalobah in the squad who can play a similar role, but it is evident by this signing that Mauricio Pochettino wants more cover.
If we look back a few days, Arsenal and Manchester United were also interested in signing the 25-year-old. Since then, we saw the Gunners signing Jurrien Timber and United re-signing Jonny Evans.
Disasi started his career as a youth player at Paris FC before moving to Reims in 2016. He joined Monaco in the summer of 2020 and was a regular starter for them ever since.
The French international played 129 games for Monaco in all competitions, scoring 12 goals and assisting four (Transfermarkt). At the back, he is aerially strong, reads the game well defensively and has a good passing range. If we look at his numbers from last season in Ligue 1, the 25-year-old won 2.6 aerial duels per game, possessed passing accuracy of close to 84% and made 1.5 defensive interceptions per game (Whoscored).
So, Chelsea are basically getting a physically strong, versatile defender who is decent on the ball and has good pace. There are a lot of things going right for him to be a success at Stamford Bridge.
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