Chelsea are unlikely to be signing Marcus Rashford during the winter transfer window.

That is not least because the Blues would either have to sign the player outright rather than temporarily or pay Manchester United the around £25million they are obligated for Jadon Sancho six months earlier than expected. Premier League clubs cannot loan multiple players to another top-flight team simultaneously, so they could not have Rashford and Sancho on loan for the remainder of this season.

Regardless, the Rashford links are tentative at best. But that is not to say that Chelsea will not be interested in where he ends up. Milan are one of multiple teams credited with an interest in the former England international, alongside Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund.

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The player's agent, Dwaine Maynard, was in Italy earlier this month, but Sky Germany claims negotiations are complicated by how much a deal could cost. Therefore, Milan are seemingly considering alternatives. La Gazzetta dello Sport named Joao Felix as a target on loan, much like Rashford.

However, signing the Portugal international on loan would be a less expensive potential opportunity. Felix earns lower wages than Rashford across his seven-year contract and has the same agent, Jorge Mendes, as Milan head coach Sergio Conceicao.

Calciomercato now claims they are in contact, with Milan hoping they can convince Chelsea to include an option for them to sign Felix permanently for around £30 million. However, any sale would reportedly have to happen at the end of this season rather than when this one concludes.

The Blues would effectively loan Felix out for 18 months before receiving any significant fee, which would also be at least £10 million less than they paid Atletico Madrid six months ago.

However, selling Conor Gallagher offset much of that move and cashing in on Felix could help facilitate further incomings.

Felix has seen game-time hard to come by under boss Enzo Maresca, who said recently when asked if he wants more from the Portuguese: "No, the only thing I've said since the start of this season is that it's difficult to play him with so many attacking players.

"In my idea it means that if Joao plays, it means Cole doesn't play. Or, if Joao plays he has to play with Cole together but it depends on the game.

"For me it's quite easy, we have three players but they are more or less similar; Cole, Joao and Christopher Nkunku.

"Joao played some games, Christo [Nkunku] also played and they both started against Ipswich and Southampton they played, Leicester they played.

"Some games they can both play together but not every game because every game is a bit different."