West Brom have reportedly beaten Chelsea to the signature of former Juventus player and free agent Martin Caceres.
Italian publication calciomercato have claimed, according to Goal, that Chelsea have suffered another blow in the transfer market as fellow Premier League outfit West Brom have beaten the North Londoners to the signature of Martin Caceres. The Uruguayan, who was previously on the payroll of Italian champions Juventus, has been a free agent since July of 2016.
The player has been a long-time serving agent of the Old Lady but Juventus decided against offering Caceres a new contract at the club, which meant that the player left after his contract expired earlier in the summer.
Chelsea have been nothing but frail at the back up until now. The Blues were linked with a move for the Uruguayan free agent with Antonio Conte looking to reunite with Caceres in order to beef up his back-line. The Italian manager busted out the 3 men-at-the-back formation and a move for Caceres, who has previous experience of playing under Conte and in a 3-man central defensive setup, was thought to be on the cards for the Blues.
But, the latest reports coming out of Italy have placed West Brom as favourites for landing Caceres with the 29-year-old set to reject interest from clubs like AC Milan and Inter Milan including Chelsea in favour of Tony Pulis’ side, whose teams are known for being solid defensively.
This could be a huge blow for Conte as he attempts to build his squad at Chelsea as Caceres had the potential to provide the Italian with at least 2-3 years of strong defensive backup at the very least. On the other hand, this news would provide a huge boost to the West Brom faithful after there were rumours of Tony Pulis not being too happy with the business done by the club during the summer transfer window.
The former Stoke City manager wanted to add a defender to the squad and was reportedly miffed at the Board’s inability to secure a transfer for any of his preferred targets.
It would be interesting to see how big an impact Caceres can have at West Brom and one would really be able to see if Chelsea are going to actually rue missing the Uruguayan defender as the season unfolds.
