Chelsea agree £44m deal for Roma’s Edin Dzeko and Emerson Palmieri

Chelsea have had a £44m bid plus add-ons (£13.2m) for Edin Dzeko and Emerson Palmieri accepted and hope to bring the two players to Stamford Bridge before the transfer window closes next week.

While negotiations with Palmieri will be straightforward, Dzeko will still need convincing to return to the Premier League and is seeking assurances over the amount of game-time he will enjoy. Signing a 31-year-old goes against Chelsea’s recent transfer policy - they only offer one-year extensions to players on the books who are over 30 - but they are willing to bend their own rules to secure the Bosnian, and are expected to offer him a contract through to at least 2020.

Chelsea have been looking for a striker to ease the workload for Álvaro Morata. The Premier League champions made an inquiry for West Ham’s Andy Carroll earlier this month only for the striker to injure an ankle. Antonio Conte is an admirer of Dzeko, who scored twice against Chelsea this season as Roma drew 3-3 at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League, and is desperate to add to his strikeforce for the second half of the season.

Dzeko, who played for Manchester City between 2011 and 2016 before joining the Serie A side, won the Serie A Golden Boot last season and has nine goals in 19 games this campaign.

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Palmieri is a Brazilian left-back who joined Roma in 2015, initially on loan. The Italian champions, Juventus, had also been interested in signing the 23-year-old. Palmieri is being brought in as back-up to Marcos Alonso at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have offered Michy Batshuayi on loan as part of the deal but Roma are exploring other possibilities to replace Dzeko should he leave in this window.

Borussia Dortmund, however, view Batshuayi as a possible replacement for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang if the Gabon international joins Arsenal and Sevilla are also interested in signing the Belgian.