Mason Mount's Chelsea future looks like a transfer saga that will drag on right until the end of the summer window.
Manchester United remain eager to sign the England international, but there is a big gap between both sides' respective valuations, with the Red Devils supposedly only willing to offer £50m.
Chelsea want closer to the £70m mark for a player about to enter the final year of his contract, but allowing the rigmarole to continue deep into the summer would be damaging for the Blues.
Instead, it may be a case of accepting United's offer now and looking for a replacement – or indeed searching within their ranks for a ready-made alternative of sorts.
Who is Chelsea youngster Cesare Casadei?
In Cesare Casadei, Chelsea appear to have a midfielder who is ready to step up and play in the Premier League under new head coach Mauricio Pochettino.
According to the Evening Standard, Pochettino is weighing up whether to include the 20-year-old as part of Chelsea's pre-season training camp after he caught the eye at the U20 World Cup with Italy.
Casadei ended the tournament as top scorer with seven goals – this as a midfielder, remember – to follow in the steps of the likes of Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland and Sergio Aguero.
But rather than having the next Messi on their hands, Chelsea will settle for something close to the next Frank Lampard, a player who scored a club record 211 goals for the West London side.
With eight goals in nine appearances for Italy at U20 level, Casadei will now look to get close to the mark Lampard managed for England U21 when scoring nine goals in 19 caps.
The youngster is not strictly one of Chelsea's own, having been recruited from Inter Milan in a reported £16m deal last summer, before then being loaned out to Championship side Reading in January.
Casadei scored one goal in 15 appearances for the relegated Royals as he made his first foray into senior football. While he caught the eye with his goals at the U20 World Cup, it was more the defensive aspect of the youngster's game that stood out at Reading.
He averaged 1.87 blocks per 90 minutes, as per FBref, which was the third-most of any Reading player, while also ranking highly for the percentage of aerial duels won with 70.6 – again, only two others bettered that figure.
For comparison, Mount averaged 1.31 blocks per 90 minutes in the Premier League last season and won 29.1% of his aerial duels.
Italy head coach Roberto Mancini was glad to see Casadei go out and get some regular football, and he now looks set to step up and feature for the U21 side during the 2023-24 campaign.
"Cesare Casadei is really good. He had already impressed me [before the U20 World Cup]," Mancini told Corriere dello Sport last week, via Football Italia.
"He went to England and played in the Championship, a tough and formative league, almost like the Premier League. If it wasn't for the U20 World Cup, he would be playing for the U21 side already."
Given Chelsea's hugely bloated squad, it may well be that Casadei has to be patient for his chance. But if nothing else, the past six months suggest the Blues have another talented midfielder on their hands, regardless of whether Mount stays or goes.
