Chelsea Transfer Rumor: Blues Preparing £23M January Bid for English-Uruguayan Defensive Duo

With the January transfer window inching closer, London giants Chelsea are reportedly preparing a hefty amount of money to help work on the fragile nature of their defense, which has largely failed to perform its duty against most opponents.

Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is believed to be interested in two defenders, one each from the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga, to bolster the team's backline and prevent more defensive leaks. The first reported target, according to The Mirror, is Bolton Wanderers' Gary Cahill, for whom the Blues are set to pay £7 million. The player will anyway be available for free next summer when his contract ends. Chelsea, however, are more interested in acquiring his services as soon as possible, rather than wait and get him for free.

Bolton demanded a fee of around £16 million for Cahill last summer but with very limited time left on the player's contract, the Blues are hopeful that Bolton will receive whatever is served to them rather than losing him for nothing.

The other player supposedly on the Blues' radar is Atletico Madrid's Uruguayan, Diego Godin. The player came to the Vicente Calderon via a £7 million transfer from Villareal and signed a five-year deal with the Rojiblancos last summer. Now, it is widely believed that the Spanish club will not sell the player for anything less than £15 million and maybe not even that much.

Chelsea's apparent need for central defenders arises from the dismal performances of their Brazilian duo, David Luiz and Alex. So far, only Serbian international Branislav Ivanovic seems to have lived up to expectations. As a measure of how poor their defense is, Chelsea lost 3-5 to Arsenal and 1-2 to Liverpool, both times at home. Even experienced campaigners like John Terry have been far less than impressive this seasons, according to a Caughtoffside report.