Chelsea are understood to be targeting a move for Atletico Madrid midfielder Pablo Barrios as an alternative to Monaco’s Lamine Camara.

The Blues notably came close to signing Camara on Deadline Day, only to be left furious with Monaco as they cancelled the deal at the last minute.

Chelsea will now switch their focus to Barrios, as first reported here for the Daily Briefing, with the Spain international attracting plenty of interest.

Arsenal also looked into signing Barrios earlier in the summer, only to be told by Atletico Madrid that he was not available.

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This led the Gunners to switch their focus to Bruno Guimaraes instead, but Barrios is also firmly on Chelsea’s radar, while others like Liverpool and Tottenham have also monitored him.

Chelsea to pursue Pablo Barrios transfer to solve midfield issues in January

Chelsea were dealt a major blow by missing out on Camara when they sold Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City on Deadline Day.

Pablo Barrios warming up for Atletico Madrid (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

This has now left Xabi Alonso’s side a little short in midfield, and it’s highly likely they’ll look to fix this when the transfer window re-opens again in the winter.

It’s not currently clear if CFC will be prepared to deal with Monaco again after the Camara drama, so Barrios might end up being their new priority.

The talented 23-year-old looks like a perfect long-term successor to Fernandez in the middle of the park, but the difficulty is that Atletico will surely push to keep him, especially as losing him mid-season would be particularly challenging.

One way or another, though, Chelsea will no doubt look to be active this January, and Barrios looks like one of their preferred targets.

It also seems likely that this is a player who will surely move on to bigger things, as Atletico have sometimes struggled to hold on to star names like this.