Chelsea target £50m-rated striker in the summer to solve goal-scoring problems- sources

Chelsea will re-ignite their interest in Dusan Vlahovic in the summer as they look for more firepower up front, sources have told LondonWorld. The Serbian striker has 15 goals and three assists in Serie A this campaign.

The Blues were interested in the Juventus forward last season, but the complicated nature of negotiations and the form of French Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson in pre-season meant Chelsea dropped interest late on.

Since then, Nkunku has only managed one goal as injuries have disrupted his start to life in west London, while Jackson has been better with seven goals, there is still a general feeling that manager Mauricio Pochettino needs a target man who can lead the club back to winning big trophies or at least, competing for them.

Vlahovic has been on fire for Juventus with only Inter Milan's Lautaro Martínez being the one to have scored more goals than the Serbian this season. Chelsea have spent close to a billion pounds on players in the last two transfer window although it is important to state that they have raised almost £400million back through player sales.

Juventus' asking price last summer

Chelsea were told Vlahovic would cost them around £50million but there was also a deal in place for a cash +  player deal with Romelu Lukaku reportedly being offered to Juventus even though that didn't also work out in the end. 

Arsenal were also interested in the Serbian striker but did not want to meet the £50million being asked. It remains to be seen how much he will cost this summer having found form and scoring almost every week.

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The Chelsea project and Pochettino

The Chelsea board have been able to reduce the average age of the squad and dropped the wage bill in an attempt to build a sustainable club that takes care of itself. 

Results on the field have however been difficult with the club failing to qualify for the Champions League by finishing 12th last season. They are currently stuck in 11th with 13 games left this campaign.

Sources have also said that manager Pochettino is under increasing pressure to deliver European football having seen the chance of securing Europa Conference League Football next season blown away by the League Cup defeat to Liverpool.