As reported by Get French Football News, AS Monaco and Chelsea are locked in negotiations over the possible transfer of 21-year-old left-footed central defender Benoît Badiashile.
Our reporting has confirmed that the player has a provisional agreement with the London side, but the two clubs remain apart on their respective valuations for Badiashile. The player has 18 months remaining on his contract at ASM are trying to extract a deal out of Chelsea that would go up to €60m including bonuses and sell-on clauses. CFC made an opening offer of circa €30m at the weekend.
L’Équipe this evening have added their own reporting, affirming that whilst Chelsea are the only club to have submitted a formal bid for this transfer window for Badiashile so far, Manchester United and FC Barcelona have also been in touch for the French international defender. They claim that Monaco are seeking €40m in order to part with the player, without specifying whether this is inclusive or exclusive of bonuses. Badiashile is however more convinced by CFC than Manchester United, because Chelsea have been telling him that they are basing their project on building a squad of the best young prospects in world football.
The Catalan club meanwhile have made a contract proposal to Badiashile but they can only afford to do a transfer in summer, not in January, and are therefore trying to convince Badiashile to wait before leaving Monaco until the end of the season.
ASM feel that it is more optimal for them to sell the player next month when he has 18 months left on his contract, rather than in summer when he would have just 12 left to run. If Badiashile was to exit in January, Philippe Clement, Monaco’s manager, has two options to replace him with in the starting XI – with Chilean international defender Guillermo Maripan and French youth international Malang Sarr, who is on loan from Chelsea.
On top of that, they have 20-year-old prospect Yllan Okou – Jesper Daland (22), who Get French Football News reported was being considered for a move to Monaco from satellite club Cercle Brugge, will himself be remaining with the Belgian 1st division outfit until the end of the season.
James Thorpe | GFFN
