Chelsea have revived their interest in Villarreal defender Pau Torres, joining a number of top European sides in pursuit of the 23-year-old.
Despite this being Torres' first full season in La Liga, he has taken to life in the top flight seamlessly - and his performances for Champions League chasing Villarreal have really caught the eye.
Torres has attracted the attention of Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal in the past - with 90min exclusively revealing the Gunners were leading heavyweight interest back in October.
But Chelsea were also in the mix at the time and, as reported by the Daily Mail, they are continuing to 'keep tabs' on Torres as head coach Frank Lampard looks to strengthen his flaky backline.
Chelsea have conceded as many goals as 15th place Brighton this season, and they were ruthlessly exposed once again in midweek - as relegation threatened West Ham fought back from a goal down to inflict a 3-2 defeat on the Blues.
While the majority of sides will be forced to cut back in the transfer market as a result of the financial uncertainty caused by the coronavirus, Chelsea's books appear to be in order - helped by the club being unable to spend money on new players over the past year because of a transfer embargo.
They received nearly £150m in transfer fees from the sales of Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata - money they were not immediately able to reinvest. Chelsea have already started spending lavishly since the January transfer window closed, recruiting Hakim Ziyech from Ajax for £33m and swooping in to sign Timo Werner from under the noses of Liverpool for around £50m.
A move for Torres would not come cheap either. The defender has a release clause of £45m in his contract, and still has three years left on his current Villarreal deal.
Torres is a product of the Villarreal youth system, making his first team debut in 2017 at the age of 20. He spent the 2018/19 season on loan at second tier side Malaga, and has gone on to establish himself as a first team regular for the Yellow Submarines during the 2019/20 campaign.
Torres has featured 29 times in La Liga, with Villarreal sitting just three points off the Champions League qualification spots.
Source: 90min
