Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos could push for a move away this summer with admirers at Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain.
The Brazil international is one of the club’s best young talents, arriving from Vasco da Gama in 2023.
After a failed loan spell at Nottingham Forest, he shone in France at Strasbourg last season, returning to his parent club to take part in the Club World Cup.
Santos made his debut off the bench in the victory over ES Tunis this week with Enzo Maresca insisting he needs more time to ‘understand how we play.’
Another extremely busy summer is in full swing at Stamford Bridge with Liam Delap, Dario Essugo and Mamadou Sarr already arriving with Brazilian sensation Estevao Willian to join up at the start of preseason.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal everyday
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
Plenty of departures are also expected. Players not included in the Club World Cup squad, including Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Joao Felix, Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga, Armando Broja, Djordje Petrovic and Lesley Ugochukwu, are all available for transfer.
With the exception of Cole Palmer and Moises Caicedo, no one in the first-team squad is regarded as ‘untouchable’ this summer – including Santos, BBC Sport report.
Chelsea want him to remain at the club as a squad player this season.
PSG and Bayern Munich have been credited with interest in the 21-year-old while Arsenal have also explored a move.
It remains to be seen if that interest remains after the club’s move to sign Christian Norgaard from Brentford this week.
In any case, Santos will have no shortage of suitors if Chelsea decide to cash in with the report stating the midfielder could push for an exit himself.
Maresca’s comments this week suggested Santos has a big job on his hands in displacing Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez as his first-choice options in midfield.’
‘He’s working well, but he needs to understand how we play,’ Maresca said.
‘It’s the same for all of the new ones. It’s important for them to continue in the way they are working to get opportunities.’
Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke are two first-team stars also facing uncertain futures.
Madueke is another player Arsenal have expressed interest with reports suggesting on Friday there is also interest from north London in Jackson.