The game-changing £77m double transfer deal that could fire Chelsea back into the Champions League

Like a slumped row of paperbacks, Chelsea need reinforcement at both ends. This summer, the Blues somehow find themselves on the precipice of yet another rebuild, and you suspect that chief among their priorities for the transfer window will be the recruitment of a new striker and a more overtly reliable first choice goalkeeper. They also require a permanent managerial appointment, but that’s a conversation for another article.

According to various reports, Chelsea are very much locked in when it comes to their respective hunts for a number nine and a number one, with two targets in particular emerging from La Liga in recent days.

The first name of note is that of Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak. The big Slovenian has, for a long while, been regarded as one of the best players in his position in world football, but despite playing 53 times across all competitions this season, has supposedly been put on the market by the Spanish giants.

A fee of around £42.5 million could supposedly be enough to tempt Atletico into a sale, and would provide Chelsea with a stopper who is capable of arriving at Stamford Bridge and simultaneously offering a notable improvement on Robert Sanchez and a mentorship to promising Serbian Djordje Petrovic. Or at least, that would be the idea.

In recent times, the Blues have tended to favour signing youth and potential over proven experience, but by pursuing a deal for the 31-year-old Oblak, they would very much be showing a more pragmatic streak that, to many, would bode well for their chances of growth and progression under Todd Boehly’s hare-brained ownership.

Then, of course, there is the small matter of bringing in a goal-scorer. It is understood that Chelsea are closely monitoring Girona striker Artem Dovbyk. This season has proven to be a breakout campaign for the 26-year-old, who has scored 21 goals in 35 La Liga outings so far, and who has played a significant part in his side’s third-place finish in the Spanish top flight.

Having only signed for the Catalan club last summer, and with a contract that runs until 2028, there is an understandable reluctance on Girona’s part to sanction an exit in the coming weeks, but according to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, the 26-year-old Ukrainian forward has a release clause of around £34.2 million written into his current deal in Spain, and may therefore be available for a relative steal.

And just like that, for a combined fee of around £77 million, Chelsea could go a long way towards solving the two most gaping issues that plague this current Stamford Bridge dressing room. In one (or two, depending on how you look at it) fell swoop, the Blues could bring in one of the most highly sought after goalkeepers of the past decade as well as one of the most hotly tipped strikers in European football today.

Oblak and Dovbyk are exactly the kind of signings that Boehly and his cronies need to be making over the coming weeks, and that could catapult Chelsea back into the Champions League picture.