Chelsea ready to move for Newcastle United and Arsenal target amid January ‘bid’ claims

Chelsea are reportedly ready to make another move to sign Newcastle United transfer target Edson Alvarez during the January transfer window.

The Ajax and Mexico star was one player believed to be on the Magpies radar during the final weeks of the summer window as the United hierachy looked to add a defensive midfielder to Eddie Howe’s squad.

Reports in Mexico suggested United had made an unsuccessful £34million offer for Alvarez but were rebuffed by the Dutch giants as they looked to retain the services of one of their key players.

Alfred Schreuder’s side has gone through something of an overhaul this summer with four key players departing since they claimed the Eredivise title last season.

Antony and Lisandro Martinez followed former manager Erik ten Hag to Manchester United at a reported cost of around £137million and striker Sebastien Haller and midfielder Ryan Gravenbach both moved to German with respecitve moves to Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.

Speaking after the transfer window closed, Ajax sporting director Gerry Hamstra assessed the departure of several big players, saying: “It was so difficult to leave our new manager with such a void. We all think we lost too many first-team players who always start. We had a summer with totally different expectations.

“We wanted to keep the group together as much as possible to be able to perform well in the Champions League and to carry on being successful.

“That’s what we talked about with Alfred (Schreuder, Ajax manager). Of course we knew there were a few snags. But no one had foreseen that our players would be bought for such huge sums of money.”

Newcastle were keen to add Alvarez to the list of departures but faced competition from Premier League rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, with the latter now said to be keen on making a second attempt to sign the midfielder in January.

The London Evening Standard has claimed the Blues are still hoping to sign the Mexican star, despite completing a deadline day season-long loan deal for Juventus and Switzerland midfielder Denis Zakaria.