Chelsea’s dream midfield options with Dewsbury-Hall and Gray

Chelsea are eyeing up moves for Leicester’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Leeds’ Archie Gray as Enzo Maresca tries to strengthen his squad in the summer transfer window.

Dewsbury-Hall, 25, worked with Maresca last season and was a star performer as the Foxes earned promotion straight back to the Premier League, while Gray, 18, emerged as one of the most promising players in the Championship and won the Young Player of the Season after impressing for Leeds.

However, Leicester and Leeds have financial issues to figure out, and Chelsea have expressed an interest in both Dewsbury-Hall and Gray without making a formal offer for either player, as per the Telegraph.

Brighton had been at the front of the queue to sign Dewsbury-Hall and it was reported that the Seagulls had agreed a player-plus-cash deal with Leicester on Thursday. That would have seen Jakub Moder move to the King Power Stadium with Dewsbury-Hall moving in the other direction.

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But Chelsea’s interest could now derail the move with one report suggesting that Dewsbury-Hall only wants to move to Stamford Bridge if he is to leave Leicester this summer. The Shepshed-born midfielder scored 12 goals and added 14 assists in 44 Championship appearances last season and is valued at around £40million.

As for Gray, he made his senior debut for Leeds on the opening game of the season against Cardiff and remained as part of Daniel Farke’s squad for the rest of the season, featuring 52 times in all competitions. It has been claimed that Leeds would want in excess of £30m to even start entertaining offers for the teenager.

If Chelsea manage to sign Dewsbury-Hall and Gray, then it would give Maresca a number of options to chose from in midfield. Although signing both of them would likely see at least one midfielder move on, the new Blues head coach would still have a talented pool of players to chose from.

Andrey Santos, Lesley Ugochukwu, Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo, Cesare Casedei, Enzo Fernandez, Conor Gallagher, and Carney Chukwuemeka remain the senior midfielders at the club right now.

Chukwuemeka has been linked with a move to AC Milan this summer, while Gallagher’s future remains uncertain with Aston Villa and Tottenham monitoring his situation. Santos is hoping for a chance to impress in pre-season, Lavia is set to return following a sustained period out through injury and Casedei is expected to reunite with Maresca after the duo worked together at Leicester during the first-half of last season.

If Maresca can keep hold of most of his midfielders and add Dewsbury-Hall or Gray then the Italian would no doubt have a strong set of players going into pre-season. The Italian is likely to use the same system as he did at Leicester, which would require a sitting midfielder and two more advanced players.

With that in mind, Caicedo or Lavia look suitable to be used as the deeper operator, with the likes of Gallagher, Fernandez and others fighting for the other two spots. Meanwhile, Dewsbury-Hall was one of the more advanced midfielders in his system at Leicester and knows how Maresca would want to play.

Having at least eight midfielders to pick from in pre-season would no doubt be a dream for Maresca, before trimming that down going into their Premier League opener against Manchester City.