Chelsea have now submitted an offer for an "exceptional" Tottenham Hotspur player, who is keen to remain in the Premier League.
Caicedo impresses despite Brentford slip-up
If the Blues have serious ambitions of mounting a Premier League title charge this season, they need to be able to close out games against teams like Brentford, which is why it will be disappointing they were unable to pick up all three points on Saturday.
Fabio Carvalho's late goal meant Enzo Maresca's side had to settle for a draw on the road, and missed the opportunity to go top of the Premier League table at this early stage of the campaign.
While Maresca will no doubt be disappointed by the result, the Italian is likely to be happy with Moises Caicedo's performance, with the Ecuadorian bagging the goal that put the west Londoners 2-1 up late in the second half, and impressing from a defensive point of view.
Statistic Number completed
Tackles 4
Interceptions 4
Duels won 7
Accurate passes 62/64 (97%)
As such, there are doubts over whether Chelsea need to bring in another defensive midfielder, but according to a report from Africa Foot, they have now made an offer for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Yves Bissouma.
Bissouma has recently suffered a knee injury, which means he will have to wait until January to leave the Blues' bitter rivals, amid widespread interest in his signature, with Newcastle United, West Ham United and Crystal Palace also lodging proposals.
Tottenham are open to sanctioning a departure, given that the Malian midfielder is well-known to have fallen out with Thomas Frank, which means a January departure could be on the cards, although they would prefer to sell him to a foreign club.
bissouma-spurs
The 29-year-old, on the other hand, has made it clear that he wants to remain in the Premier League, rather than joining the likes of Chicago Fire, Galatasaray, Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe or Lyon.
"Exceptional" Bissouma would be strange signing for Chelsea
In truth, it would be strange for the Blues to launch a formal move for the Tottenham midfielder, not least because Maresca is already well-stocked in the engine room, with the likes of Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos at the manager's disposal.
Moreover, there are also issues surrounding the Mali international's discipline, with Frank leaving him out for the Super Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain and saying: "Bissouma isn't here because of disciplinary reasons. He has been late several times, the latest one too many."
That's not to say the Spurs ace isn't a talented player on his day, with Gary Lineker once describing him as "exceptional" after putting in an impressive performance against Everton.
However, there is little point in Chelsea potentially shelling out £14m on a player who would be likely to receive little game time, given Caicedo and Fernandez's emergence as key players, with both starting all four Premier League games up to this point.