Chelsea favourites to sign French midfielder ahead of Manchester United

Chelsea are reportedly ahead of Manchester United in the pursuit of Lille midfielder Boubakary Soumare this month.

The Frenchman has built his reputation with Lille over the past few years and this has caught the eye of some of Europe's elite clubs.

He has been linked with a Premier League move of late and a report from Sky Sports claims that both Chelsea and United are willing to meet the £40m price tag set by Lille.

However, the player is said to hold the preference of joining the Blues ahead of the Red Devils but it is unclear whether the transfer will go through before the end of the month.

The Blues previously signed Christian Pulisic from Borussia Dortmund in January 2019 only to loan him back to the German side for the season and they may follow the same route with Soumare.

Soumare is comfortable playing in both the defensive midfield and central midfield roles but he has mostly featured in the former of those positions where he has impressed with his distribution in particular.