Das Reboot at Chelsea with £90m Havertz

CHELSEA are confident that Kai Havertz will join compatriot Timo Werner and become their third major signing of the summer even if they do not get the required point to qualify for the Champions League against Wolves today.

The Bayer Leverkusen playmaker, 21, is expected to join Werner and Hakim Ziyech as Chelsea continue to strengthen in attacking positions, though the club still need to agree a fee with the Bundesliga club, who are expecting around £90million.

However, it is a defensive reboot which is desperately required if Chelsea wish to close the 33-point gap on Liverpool and challenge for the title.

Chelsea have conceded 54 goals this season, more than 16th-placed Brighton, and are 15th in the Premier League table of most clean sheets kept this season.

West Ham’s Declan Rice, pencilled in to play either defensive midfield or centre-half, is understood to be Frank Lampard’s ideal choice to improve the team defensively with Ajax’s Nicolas Tagliafico the likely alternative to Ben Chilwell of Leicester at left-back, who looks too expensive at £70m.

It is the replacement of goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga which will cause Chelsea most angst this summer, the £71m world-record fee paid for the keeper and his huge wages making it difficult to move the former Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper on. Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak would be the club’s first choice but his release clause is €120m (£109m).

Lampard has acknowledged the defensive issue and insists the club can improve next season. ‘It may be that we look at how we recruit going forwards,’ said Lampard. ‘We always want to improve with a club like Chelsea.’

Lampard also believes an extra year of work with the current players will reap rewards next season. ‘I don’t think the things we need to do will necessarily affect our attacking threat,’ he added. ‘I think you can have both. It takes work and it takes time and it takes the balance of the team.

‘This year we came in, we had a transfer ban and a lot of work to do and some younger players in creating positions within the team. And we just had to work — and we worked very hard.

‘Of course, you want to develop. I’ve seen other teams, teams that have gone on to be very successful have periods where there are some parts that don’t just fit into place, no matter how hard you work. And we are certainly in that process.’