Chelsea have seemingly missed out on the signing of Bayern Munich’s David Alaba.
Blues boss Frank Lampard was reportedly keen to sign the defender, whose Bayern contract is due to expire in the summer.
Manchester United have also been linked with Alaba, who had been tipped to move to the Premier League either at the end of the season or during this month’s transfer window.
However, it appears that both English clubs have missed out on Alaba, with Spanish newspaper Marca reporting that he is set to sign for Barcelona.
Lampard, whose team have lost four of their last six matches, is keen to add to his squad.
Speaking at a press conference last week, he suggested that he would like to bring in new faces but might need to offload players first.
“I have ideas. We have a big squad,” Lampard said.
“We’ll have to see if that changes – if there are opportunities for players that aren’t playing so much.
“That will be a conversation between player, club and myself. Then we’ll see whether we can strengthen in the right way.
“But we’re not jumping up and down to do so. My focus this year is purely on work, because we have young players. But we’ll see. It’s a long month.”