Michael Olise signs, Julian Alvarez deal - Chelsea's dream front four verdict for 2024/25 season

Chelsea will discover their fixtures for the upcoming Premier League season tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

Enzo Maresca will take charge of an English top-flight side for the first time as he prepares to officially start his role at Stamford Bridge next month. The Italian was appointed on a five-year contract to replace Mauricio Pochettino but is yet to officially start work.

The club will tour the United States next month for their pre-season campaign with Maresca getting his first chance to work with the squad he has inherited. Before the tour begins, though, the newly-appointed head coach will be hoping the club can make a couple more signings with work going on behind the scenes as we speak.

football.london understands Chelsea approached Crystal Palace last week over the signing of Michael Olise. The Blues wanted to sign the 22-year-old last summer but in the end the winger penned a contract extension in south London.

Chelsea are not the only club vying for Olise's signature, with Bayern Munich, Newcastle United and Manchester United also understood to be interested. The Blues, though, have emerged as the early favourites to re-sign Olise, who left the club when he was just 14 years old.

Meanwhile, talks remain ongoing with Aston Villa for striker Jhon Duran. Villa are demanding a fee believed to be around £40-45million for the 20-year-old striker but Chelsea are looking to drive that price right down.

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As always with Chelsea, there are so many transfer rumours regarding possible incomings and outgoings. A lot of them are attackers this summer with the club looking to bolster their options. And, with that being said, football.london's panel of writers share their thoughts on what the Chelsea front four should look like for the start of next season.

Bobby Vincent

I think everyone is fairly unanimous in wanting Olise to join. The Palace winger would take Chelsea's attack to the next level, I believe, and the club should be doing everything in their power to get this deal over the line.

Imagine him, Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku behind a top-class striker? Nicolas Jackson has the potential to be just that but it may actually benefit the 22-year-old if someone in that bracket was signed this summer to help ease the burden on the centre-forward.

Could Julian Alvarez be that man? There have been no actual meaningful links with the Argentine thus far but some reports have claimed he might want out of Manchester City this summer.

If that is indeed the case, then Chelsea should be all over that like a rash. I think in many ways Duran makes sense but if you're giving me the choice of the two, I am going for Alvarez every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Tom Coley

Chelsea already have plenty of attacking options and not only will Nkunku have a bigger role to play next season, but Olise is being actively pursued. This doesn't bode particularly well for Noni Madueke or Mykhailo Mudryk.

On paper Chelsea will likely be a 4-3-3 with a No.10 coming from midfield, it won't be too far away from Pochettino's 4-2-3-1 for much of the season. But once things start there is going to be an effective five-man front line, let alone four, with players pushing into each of the horizontal channels across the pitch.

At least one of these is likely to come from a deeper midfield role, one may also be a full-back, these are all questions for Maresca to answer. But at the core there is already Nkunku, Jackson, and Palmer who are undroppable when fit. Olise would also command a place if he were to join.

This poses plenty of challenges going the opposite way. How do you cover for a quartet out-of-possession? Where do the two (Palmer and Olise) who both prefer to operate on the right play?

If Duran arrives what does this mean for Jackson? Can he find a place on the left or is that open to Nkunku? What actually is Nkunku's best role? There is plenty to be worked out but on an individual level Chelsea certainty have plenty of talent to work with.

Joe Doyle

If Olise does sign this summer then I think he goes straight into the starting XI on the right-hand side of attack. That move would allow Palmer to hopefully flourish in the No.10 role, with the ability to switch up with Olise and keep defences guessing.

Up front, I'd go with Nkunku in a starting role. While he's been seen quite regularly in his career as a No.10 or second striker, I think having him in a fluid attacking line allows greater flexibility and will make him harder to pick up. It does, however, mean Nicolas Jackson is on the bench.

We saw good things from Jackson, particularly in the latter stages of the season. We all know he's not the most reliable goal scorer, but it was a promising start to his Premier League career, and he can do a job off the bench.

It leaves competition for the starting role on the left, and I think for me at the moment Raheem Sterling pips Mudryk to a starting role. Mudryk has a lot of promise to his game, but Chelsea can't afford a 'nearly' man if they want to be challenging for trophies.