Chelsea have been given new hope in their quest to sign Algerian full-back Faouzi Ghoulam with the news today that the 26-year-old is stalling on a new contract at Napoli.
 

Having just returned home from the AFCON 2017 tournament, it was believed that the player would be ready to sit down and negotiate a new agreement with the club that he joined in 2014 but according to Corriere dello Sport, any such agreement is still a long way off.
 

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is looking to overhaul his defence in the summer and the Algerian international is high on the list of priorities for the Italian tactician. Vastly experienced at playing in a back-three, Ghoulam is seen as the perfect fit for Conte’s playing style at Stamford Bridge but he faces a tussle to bring him to the Premier League with Napoli set to drive a hard bargain.
 

Having recently off-loaded striker Manolo Gabbiadini to Southampton in the final hours of the January transfer window, President Aurelio De Laurentiis is an expert at getting what he wants for his players. This now looks set to be one of the hot transfer topics of the summer.