Mauricio Pochettino to sign off first January move as £17.5m deal is proposed with player swap

Real Madrid have indicated their willingness to keep Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga beyond this season and they are looking to make it happen as soon as possible.

Kepa has also indicated his intention to stay at the Spanish capital with his finally moving back and the speed with which he agreed to leave despite being in line to start the campaign as the number one for the west London club.

Since moving to Madrid in the summer, the 29-year-old has played in 12 games, helping manager Carlo Ancelotti's side to the top of the league table and three wins in the Champions League.

There is no doubt that he would want to stay in Madrid but according to the Sun, Madrid wants to offer only £17million for services which will be a massive loss to the over £70million the Blues paid to Athletico Bilbao for his signing a few years ago.

Chelsea were happy to have him off the books mainly due to his huge wages but they will expect to at least get more than the £17million Madrid are proposing to get him off the books.

The opportunity to move to Madrid came after first-choice stopper Thibaut Courtois suffered a serious knee injury in August.

In Kepa’s absence, Chelsea have had to put Robert Sanchez in the post. He was initially brought in to be second choice and even though he’s shown signs of being good there have been games where he’s not been at his best.

Chelsea have also been recently linked with Arsenal’s out-of-favour goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.