Chelsea are closing in on the signing of Germany international Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen, football.london understands.
The Blues have been keeping tabs on the 21-year-old attacking-midfielder for several months now and are edging closer and closer towards getting a deal over the line.
It is believed that Havertz wants to seal a switch to Stamford Bridge, with personal terms having been agreed, but the transfer fee itself remains the sticking point, though Chelsea are working increasingly hard to reach an agreement with the Bundesliga giants.
Should everything go according to plan, Chelsea will hope to get a deal concluded for the youngster as soon as possible.
Should the deal get completed, Havertz will become the Blues' third signing of what is shaping up to be an exciting-looking summer for the club, with Frank Lampard - the Chelsea head coach - having already bolstered his squad with the additions of Hakim Ziyech from Ajax and RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner, both of whom have already started training at the Blues' Cobham training base.
Though Chelsea have already splashed out more than £80million on landing Ziyech and Werner, both of whom will add significant amounts of quality to the club's forward line, landing Havertz, you could argue, would be the jewel in the crown, with the midfielder, who can also play as a striker if required, considered as one of the very best young players in world football.
Earlier this year, Havertz, who scored a total of 17 goals in 43 appearances in all competitions during the 2019/20 campaign, was closely linked with a move to Premier League champions Liverpool, with the Anfield club looking at ways of improving what is already an incredibly talented squad.
But even after Liverpool had cooled their interest in Havertz, who had the honour of being Leverkusen captain on occasions during the 2019/20 campaign, was still attracting praise from manager Jurgen Klopp, who is a big fan of the youngster, as well as fellow Chelsea new boy Werner.
Klopp, speaking to Sky in Germany in early-June, said: "There are a lot of good players on this planet. Timo Werner is a great player, Kai Havertz is a great player.
"Right time, opportunity - everything has to come together. Six, seven weeks ago, we didn't know if we could play again this year. If we hadn't played the second half of the season, we would have thought, 'OK, when can you really play football again?' And now it starts right away.
"We act as if everything is already settled. It's not settled. We use this little loophole we've been left to play football again. Everything else we have to see the moment it happens. We can't pretend now that everything's going to be fine in the future."
Klopp is evidently a fan of Havertz, who will be desperate to show his fellow countryman what he could have had if he does end up sealing a switch to Stamford Bridge.
Klopp, though, is not alone in being a big fan of the Germany international, with Havertz also having attracted praise from Lionel Messi.
The Barcelona star, earlier this year, was tasked with picking his top 15 upcoming young stars in European football.
Of the 15 that Messi chose, Havertz was amongst them, alongside current Blues stars Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount.
On his decision to include Havertz on his leaderboard, Messi said: "His composure in front of goal is so impressive for such a young player."
To be described as "impressive" by Messi shows Havertz must be doing something right, as the Argentine, it is fair to say, knows a lot more than most when it comes to identifying a player with talent and quality.
