Chelsea rival Liverpool for versatile star, Arsenal considered him before choosing different signing

Chelsea are reportedly keeping tabs on Bayer Leverkusen’s versatile defender Piero Hincapie, having scouted him alongside his teammate Victor Boniface in the Bundesliga club’s Champions League clash with AC Milan this week.

Hincapie has impressed in his time at Leverkusen, and it was recently reported that he came up on Arsenal’s radar in the summer, only for the Gunners to prioritise the signing of Riccardo Calafiori instead, according to The Athletic.

More recently, the Ecuador international, who can operate well as a centre-back or a left-back, has also been linked as a target for Liverpool, as per a report from Football Insider.

Now TBR Football claim that Chelsea are also monitoring Hincapie, so it could be that we’ll see an intriguing battle for the signature of the 22-year-old in the months ahead.

Piero Hincapie transfer: Is there room for him at Chelsea?

Some Chelsea fans will undoubtedly feel they could do well to sign someone like Hincapie as an upgrade on their current left-backs, but it also doesn’t necessarily come across as a deal that needs to be a priority right now.

CFC also have Marc Cucurella, Renato Veiga and Ben Chilwell as options at left-back, while Levi Colwill can also fill in there, even if it’s not his best position.

Still, that’s a decent amount of depth, though of course Chilwell currently seems out of favour, so might leave Chelsea, in which case Hincapie could be a useful extra addition.

On top of that, the fact that Hincapie can play in central defence could be useful as Enzo Maresca may well feel he could benefit from improving on the likes of Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi, who have not really delivered since joining the west London outfit.

If Chelsea could raid Leverkusen for star names like Boniface and Hincapie, that could be some superb business to help take the club forward after their struggles of the last few years.