Valencia are prepared to sell centre-back Aymen Abdennour this January, with Chelsea monitoring developments closely, according to a report from Fichajes.net.
Abdennour is only half-way through his debut season on the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, after signing from AS Monaco for a fee in the region of £22 million.
Surprisingly however, the Algerian international has struggled to adapt to La Liga with Valencia reportedly keen to recoup some of his hefty price tag.
The situation has been further exacerbated of late, after Gary Neville recently omitted the defender from his 22-man squad for a league match against relegation battlers, Rayo Vallecano.
Chelsea were indeed linked with Abdennour in the summer, before signing the recently departed Papy Djilobodji for a substantially smaller sum. With Djilobodji now on loan at Werder Bremen, Chelsea certainly have the space to accommodate a new central defender for the future.
Still relatively young for a defender at 26, Abdennour has proven himself in the Champions League, playing a key role in the Monaco team that reached last season’s quarter-finals. Abdennour has also been capped over 40 times for Algeria.
