Chelsea have denied reports that they have made a big-money bid for Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres.
The Swedish striker moved to the Portuguese club in the summer for £20m from Coventry City, and has hit the ground running in the capital.
Gyokeres has reached 20 goals already across all competitions, as Sporting sit top of the Primeira Liga, as well as reaching the knockout stages of the Europa League.
The 25-year-old has continued his fine form which earned the move in the first place, after he scored 40 goals in his two full seasons at Coventry.
Links with the Premier League came as Everton were believed to interested over the summer, but Sporting beat the Toffees to Gyokeres's signature.
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Gyokeres has also now become a regular international with Sweden, and has scored five goals in 19 caps, including a very impressive solo strike in their clash away to Belgium in Euro 2024 qualifying.
The form of the Swede led to reports from Portuguese outlet Record that Chelsea had submitted a bid of £73m for the striker in the past few days, which was rejected.
However, the Evening Standard claims that Chelsea have denied any rumours of a bid, despite a new striker being top priority this month.
Gyokeres is believed to have a release clause of £87m in his contract, and Sporting will not accept any offer below that sum.
With Chelsea chasing a new forward, the same is true of Napoli's Victor Osimhen, with the Serie A club holding out until his £112m release clause is met.
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Mauricio Pochettino's side have been hugely reliant on the goals of Cole Palmer in recent weeks, as Chelsea remain down in ninth, despite a narrow 1-0 win over Fulham at the weekend.
It was Palmer who was on the scoresheet again on that occasion, converting a first-half penalty, but it keeps Chelsea nine points adrift of the top four.
With Nicolas Jackson away at the Africa Cup of Nations and Christopher Nkunku out injured once more, Chelsea played Palmer as a false nine in their EFL Cup semi-final first leg defeat to Middlesbrough last week.
Armando Broja came into the side for the Fulham clash, but remains their only available senior striker, and the Albanian has just one Premier League goal this season.
Chelsea are next in action in the second leg against Boro next midweek, with hopes that Nkunku will return from the hip injury that has kept him out of the side's first three games of 2024 so far.
Andrew Delaney
