CHELSEA IPO KARIBU KUMSAJILI ZOUMA

Sky sources understand that Chelsea are close to
completing the signing of Kurt Zouma from St
Etienne.

The 19-year-old defender is expected to seal his
switch to Stamford Bridge before being loaned
back to the French club for the remainder of
the season.
Reports suggest that Zouma will sign a five-year
deal after Chelsea agreed a fee in the region of
£12.5m, which would make the Blues the
biggest spenders in the transfer window so far.
Chelsea have already spent heavily to bring
Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah to the club
and the arrival of Zouma could push their
transfer total past £45m.
Zouma attracted interest from a number of
clubs, despite being hit with a lengthy ban in
November for a reckless tackle that left Sochaux
midfielder Thomas Guerbert with a broken leg.
The France youth international was part of the
team that won the Under-20 World Cup last year
and Chelsea's scouts identified him as an
exciting talent.
When asked about Zouma last week, Jose
Mourinho said: "As you can see, Chelsea thinks
about the future and when we think about the
future, we have scouting, we have contacts, we
contact clubs, we contact agents, we contact
players that we have permission from clubs,
which is the case obviously.
"We try to be in control of the situation, but we
think we are doing well."