Chelsea eyes on Manchester City vs Monaco with Djibril Sidibe, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Bernardo Silva on wishlist

Chelsea will be keeping a close eye on some of Monaco’s star players when the French club take on Manchester City in the Champions League tonight.

The Blues are exploring the possibility of buying three members of Monaco’s squad in the summer and defender Djibril Sidibe, defensive midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko and attacking midfielder Bernardo Silva could all feature at the Etihad Stadium tonight, although Sidibe is recovering from a knock.

Chelsea coach Antonio Conte and technical director Michael Emenalo have already watched Sidibe and Bakayoko, during Monaco’s 2-1 home win against Tottenham in the Champions League pool stage in November.

Sidibe, who scored the opening goal that night, has emerged as a Chelsea target due to his ability to play at full back and midfield.

The Blues have admired Bakayoko for some time and, significantly, he has rejected Monaco’s latest offer to extend his current contract, which expires in 2019.

Conte wants to strengthen his midfield options during the close season, particularly with the club set to return to the Champions League next term.

Veteran midfielder Mikel John Obi, who joined Tianjin TEDA last month, has yet to be replaced, while Silva is being lined up to take Oscar’s position in the Chelsea ranks. Oscar joined Shanghai SIPG for £60million in January and Conte has been promised those funds will be available to spend on new players.

Silva has scored six goals and created five assists for Monaco this season and Chelsea have already been linked with an offer thought to be in the region of £70m.

Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev confirmed yesterday that there is a lot of interest from Europe’s top clubs in their key players, who have taken them top of Ligue 1.

“I really don’t want to go into details, but for all our major players, we do have interest from major European clubs,” said Vasilyev. “This is not the right time to talk about it. Let’s finish the season and then we can look at our project for next season. Me, the coach and the players are focused on this season.”

Chelsea boast a good relationship with Monaco, having taken striker Radamel Falcao on loan from them last season.