Chelsea can pound sand if they come for Gueye

Frustrated in their attempts to replace midfield pivot Nemanja Matic, Chelsea could come knocking at Everton’s door for Idrissa Gueye, reports the Daily Mail. The defending Premier League champions have been pursuing Danny Drinkwater from Leicester City for some time now, but the Foxes’ £40m pricetag has been a big stumbling block.

Now it appears with Matic gone to Manchester United and with the Londoners pressed to use David Luiz as a central defensive midfielder, Chelsea could be looking at the Toffees’ Senegalese midfelder to shore up the middle of the pitch.

However, it is extremely unlikely that Everton will be in any mood to sell the man often compared to N’Golo Kante, even if a monster bid was made for the player that Everton bought from Aston Villa for a mere £7m a season ago.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

While Gana tended to be unruly and freelanced all over the pitch last season, it appears a full offseason under Ronald Koeman has vastly improved his perception of his role. He has been nothing short of impressive this season, sticking to the brief handed to him by the manager and not necessarily straying too far upfield.

Yesterday against Manchester City he was the hub of everything the Blues did on the right wing, which was basically the only way the Blues advanced all game long.

In addition, his touch with the ball has also been much improved too. So much so that he has been a key part of advancing the ball forward from the middle, something he was not necessarily good at last season. With that added attacking impetus has come additional chances in front of goal, and the 27-year-old even scored a pure center-forward’s goal last Thursday against Hajduk Split.

After the Blues sold Gareth Barry and with James McCarthy often spending more time on the physiotherapist’s table than on the pitch, there is very little chance that they let Gueye go as well. Even if Everton go out and get Leander Dendoncker as rumoured, Gueye is still highly valued and a key component of Koeman’s plan and it would be tantamount to heresy for the club to even entertain a dismal offer from Chelsea for him.