According to the Daily Express, Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri is happy to let Danny Drinkwater leave for a European club this summer, but West Brom should make an ambitious loan move for the 28-year-old to solve their midfield problems.
What's the story?
Drinkwater joined Chelsea last summer for £35m, a year after he had helped Leicester to their incredible title win, but failed to break into the side and struggled with injuries under Antonio Conte.
The central-midfielder made just five Premier League starts and scored one goal last season as the Blues finished fifth in what turned out to be Conte's final season at Stamford Bridge.
Despite playing for half an hour in Chelsea's Community Shield loss to Manchester City, Drinkwater was left out of the squad completely for the opening weekend win over Huddersfield and now the Express reports that Sarri is willing to let him leave the club, with transfer windows across Europe open until the end of August.
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Ambitious move
However, the loan window is also still open for EFL clubs in England and West Brom should take advantage of this by testing Chelsea with an ambitious move to take Drinkwater to the Hawthorns for the season ahead.
Baggies boss Darren Moore has played left-midfielder Chris Brunt alongside Jake Livermore in the opening three league fixtures, but the 33-year-old has looked off the pace.
As a Premier League winner, Drinkwater may be reluctant to drop down to the Championship initially, but with Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic both coming in to Chelsea this summer he has been pushed even further down the pecking order and will need to leave to play football. A spell at West Brom could put him perfectly in the shop window to secure a permanent move in either January or next summer.
The Express also reports that Chelsea have subsidised some of Tiemoue Bakayoko's wages to offload him on loan to AC Milan, and the Baggies could hope for a similar deal with Drinkwater.