Cut-Price Nicolás Tagliafico May Finally End Chelsea's Search for Ashley Cole Replacement

It has been six years since Ashley Cole left Chelsea, and the Blues still haven't replaced him.

Filipe Luís failed, Baba Rahman couldn't stop getting injured, Marcos Alonso can't actually defend, Emerson is a thoroughly average footballer and César Azpilicueta is a right-back.

In the time since Cole's departure, Andrew Robertson was relegated with Hull City and won the Champions League with Liverpool, Alphonso Davies made his senior debut and is now starring for Bayern Munich and Ben Chilwell transitioned from academy star to England international with Leicester City.

Having missed out on so many stars, it's time for Chelsea to finally get this right - and a cut-price move for Ajax's Nicolás Tagliafico is the perfect way to do that.

The Blues are said to have been quoted an affordable fee of £22.4m if they want to land the wantaway Argentine this summer, and that almost seems too good to be true. In today's market, or at least a pre-coronavirus world, left-backs capable of reaching the Champions League semi-final can command well over double that amount.

The price of any potential deal is an obvious positive, but perhaps the biggest plus of such a transfer is the obvious fact that it would be for a star like Tagliafico, rather than some soon-to-be flop.

A regular at international level, Tagliafico is well and truly in that upper echelon of left-backs. That's why the likes of Barcelona and Arsenal want to bring him in. He comes with two Eredivisie titles (assuming you count this season) and he helped inspire one of the most enthralling Champions League journeys in recent memory.

Experience isn't an issue, but Tagliafico's biggest upside is the fact that he can do what Chelsea want from their left-backs - he can attack and defend. I know, crazy!

Alonso is probably one of the best attacking full-backs around. The Spaniard scores goals at a ludicrous rate for a defender, but that's because he doesn't preoccupy himself with any defending. Believe it or not, that's a problem.

Ever since his days in Argentina with Independiente, Tagliafico's defending has caught the eye. He earned himself nicknames like El Léon ('The Lion') and Pitbull ('Mr Worldwide') for his tenacity, work rate and sheer desire to win the ball back.

What he lacks in physicality, he makes up for in intelligence and timing. Tagliafico is surprisingly good in the air as he knows when to jump and how to position his body to get an advantage. It's a similar defensive style to Ricardo Carvalho and has even seen the Argentine deployed as a third centre-back at times.

Going forward, his dribbling and crossing skills are no secret. Taking advantage of Ajax's free-flowing style, he has plundered 12 goals and 15 assists during his two years in Amsterdam, so he's obviously reliable at both ends of the field. That's all Chelsea need, but for some reason it has been so hard to find.

To find an answer to your problems isn't always easy in football, but doing so for just over £22m - less than one Danny Drinkwater - is outstanding business.

We all know about Chelsea's need to improve this summer. Finding a new centre-back and striker is high on the Blues' agenda, and a source has confirmed to 90min that Chelsea were prepared to spend most of their budget on those two positions before football's economy was turned upside down.

That's why an £80m move for Chilwell, which now looks more like £40m or so, has always seemed unlikely. Chelsea need the money for elsewhere, so spending £22m on Tagliafico would barely impact Frank Lampard's plans for the summer.

Deals which make sense on every level are somewhat of a rarity at Stamford Bridge, but this summer could be the chance to change that. It's a new era at Chelsea, and it's time to kick that off with a bang.

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