Jadon Sancho hands Chelsea boost in transfer race as Enzo Maresca wants ‘player who can help us’

Jadon Sancho is reportedly waiting on a potential offer from Chelsea as he would prefer to join the Blues over Juventus this summer, while Enzo Maresca refused to rule out the England international’s arrival.

Juventus want to sign Sancho on loan but United would rather the winger left on a permanent basis and Chelsea have held talks with United over a swap deal involving Raheem Sterling .

Ben Chilwell has also reportedly been offered to the Red Devils, but they’ve shown little interest in the left-back, and ‘little progress has been made with moving Sterling’ according to The Guardian , who do though claim that ‘Chelsea remain in the running to take Sancho in a separate deal’.

The report also claims that Sancho has ‘indicated a preference to join Chelsea over Juventus’ and Blues boss Enzo Maresca, during his media duties ahead of his side’s second leg of their Europa Conference League playoff with Servette on Thursday, was asked about the links with the former Borussia Dortmund star.

“If we have to sign a player just for signing, I don’t want it,” the Chelsea head coach said.

“But if we can sign a player who can help us, for sure I want it. I know Jadon very well from many years with [Manchester] City. I know him very well. But he is not our player. We will see what happens.”

Chelsea won the first leg against Servette 2-0 at Stamford Bridge last week and Maresca will likely ring the changes following their 6-2 win over Wolves in the Premier League as he rotates his bulging squad.

But he has previously insisted that Chelsea are not the ‘mess’ they appear from the outside having dropped a number of players to a ‘bomb squad’ training apart from the first team.

Sterling, who has three years left on a deal worth £325,000 a week, is one of those players after Maresca made it clear he’s not part of his plans and reiterated that if he doesn’t move this summer he won’t see minutes this season.

“He knows exactly what he has to do,” Maresca said. “He doesn’t need my advice. I prefer to be honest with the player. . I don’t know what happens when the window closes. We will see who is here and who is not here.

“The only thing I can say is the ones who are going to get minutes are the ones who I think can help us. It’s not just Raheem. It’s all the players who are training apart. The moment the transfer ­window closes, they are not going to get ­minutes. I’ve already been clear with them and honest.”

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Maresca still wants to add a striker and a defender to his ranks this summer, with Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Benfica’s Tomas Araujo thought to be the top targets.

Osimhen has received a huge offer from Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli but is said to prefer a move to Chelsea , if they can agree a deal both with him and Napoli, which may be difficult given the Nigerian’s significant wage demands.

The Blues are said to be looking at Brentford’s Ivan Toney, Aston Villa’s John Duran and Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin as alternative options should they fail to get the Osimhen deal over the line.