According to reports in The Mirror, Chelsea are confident they have beaten off competition from Manchester City for Southampton centre-half Virgil van Dijk. The journal claims the West London club has made the 25-year-old Dutchman their primary summer transfer target and that boss Antonio Conte believes the player is heading to Stamford Bridge next season.
 

The Premier League champions elect have made their defence the main focus of attention this summer and the former Celtic man could be the first of several new recruits brought into the club. 
 

Manchester City have also been chasing his signature with Pep Guardiola also desperate to add new blood to his back-line next term. The Southampton players even played a joke of the Dutchman by sending him a City shirt in a Christmas prank last year.

With Everton also understood to be in the running, the Saints can raise the stakes for their £50 million rated star; it seems however, that Chelsea have already agreed to the fee and his arrival in West London looks imminent.