Chelsea have contacted La Liga champions Barcelona over the availability of Jasper Cillessen according to reports from Spain.
Barcelona publication Sport (h/t Football.London) claims that Chelsea and London rivals Arsenal have made contact in an attempt to sign the 29-year-old Dutch goalkeeper. The price for the former Ajax man is stated to be €60million, which is his release clause.
Liverpool are also interested in the Dutch keeper as they look for alternatives to Loris Karius after the Champions League final blunders.
Cillessen played only 11 games for the La Liga giants last season, with nine of them coming in the Copa del Rey. The report also suggests that the player is happy to stay at Nou Camp as understudy to Germany keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Blues searching for a Courtois replacement
We have been on the lookout for a quality keeper as Thibaut Courtois has not yet signed a new deal. The Belgian would become a free agent at the start of next season and we could possibly try to cash in on him this summer should we not extend his deal.
The Belgian has been linked with a move to Real Madrid for a while now and did struggle a this season under Antonio Conte.
It is interesting to note that we are looking at Cillessen as a possible number one goalkeeper while the other players that we are interested in include Jack Butland and Alisson.
While Alisson of AS Roma would be a more expensive signing compared to Butland and Cillessen, he might be the best out of the three.
However, if we are looking for a less expensive and less risky signing, going for Stoke City’s Butland makes more sense than Cillessen given that the Englishman has been playing regular first-team football and is accustomed to the Premier League too.