Asmir Begovic’s hopes of securing a move to Bournemouth have suffered a blow after two of his potential replacements were ruled out of moves to Chelsea.
The 29-year-old goalkeeper wants to join Bournemouth, who have already lodged a £10million bid, in order to get more football.
Chelsea will let him go only if they can find another back-up for Thibaut Courtois. Their only other goalkeeper is Portugal international Eduardo, who joined from Dinamo Zagreb last summer, but he has not played a game for the club.
Chelsea were considering a move for Diego Lopez, who they tried to sign last year, or Celtic’s Craig Gordon.
However, Lopez is playing regularly at Espanyol after joining on loan from AC Milan and is not thinking of leaving.
He said: “Chelsea’s interest? It affects me positively. This kind of news is good for me because it’s a recognition of my job. But beyond that I am calm and focused on Espanyol until June 30. Hopefully we can prolong our relationship after that.
“Nothing is going to happen until June 30 and from there AC Milan and Espanyol will have to give a step forward but I have repeated what I want.
“If Espanyol want me they already know my intentions but they will need to reach an agreement [with Milan].”
In Pictures | Chelsea vs Hull | 22/01/2017
Gordon was particularly appealing to Chelsea because the 34-year-old Scot has experience of playing in the Premier League, with Sunderland.
His contract runs out at the end of the season but Celtic coach Brendan Rodgers is adamant his No1 keeper will not be departing prematurely.
Rodgers said: “Would Chelsea be wasting their time [by pursuing Gordon]? Yes, of course. If it is the case they are interested, we don’t want to sell him.
“Craig’s very much a part of what I’m doing here. He can go on for a number of years and be a real pillar of this team.”
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