Chelsea given green light to sign Barcelona star?

Chelsea have reportedly been given the green light to land the services of Philippe Coutinho during this summer's transfer window.

The Brazilian is presently in a season-long loan stint with Bayern Munich where he has registered eight goals and six assists from 22 league games.

Despite this, the German side have no plans of triggering the buy option to sign him on a permanent basis at the end of the campaign.

According to Sport, the Blues are likely to make an approach for the former Liverpool man, who was the subject of interest from Tottenham last summer.

It is added that they could land his services for an initial £28.1m loan fee and that would also cover up the player's wages for the 2020/21 season.

Chelsea were handed a transfer ban by FIFA last summer but they managed to win their appeal against the embargo at the Court of Arbitration of Sport in December.

Still, they made no signings during the January transfer window and manager Frank Lampard will expect the backing from the board to bolster the squad in the coming months.

The Capital outfit have already finalised a deal for Hakim Ziyech from Dutch giants Ajax and the attacker is expected to join the club when the transfer window officially reopens.