‘Blues need signings to compete’

MAURIZIO Sarri believes Chelsea need to overturn their two-window transfer ban to be able to catch Premier League pace-setters Manchester City and Liverpool next season.

Chelsea will take their fight against Fifa’s two-window transfer embargo to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), with head coach Sarri admitting the Blues will struggle to chase next term’s league title without new recruits.

The Premier League club “categorically refutes” Fifa’s latest findings, after the game’s governing body rejected the Blues’ appeal against the transfer embargo for signing underage players.

Chelsea were fined £460,000 for 29 breaches of the international transfer rules on minors, and Fifa threw out the Blues’ appeal yesterday.

“It’s very difficult to cover the gap at the moment. We need to work, probably we need to do something from the market,” said Sarri, with third-placed Chelsea 24 points behind league leaders City and 23 behind Liverpool.

“It’s not easy, because the level of the top two is very high – as we can see in Europe, so it’s not easy.

“I think we are a very good team so we need only one, two players, no more.”

Chelsea will host Eintracht Frankfurt in tonight’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Stamford Bridge, with N’Golo Kante missing due to hamstring trouble.

Fifa confirmed it has “partially upheld” Chelsea’s appeal but only in allowing Chelsea to sign European players aged under 16.

The Blues will now hope CAS will force a suspension of the ban pending another appeal but Fifa will likely be in opposition.