With the end of the transfer window looming on Tuesday night, the Italian national sport of 'calciomercato' speculation is reaching a frenzy and, as ever, Chelsea are at the centre of plenty of rumours.

La Corriere dello Sport reported yesterday that Roma's swoop for Blues midfield target Franck Kessie is all-but a done deal with the Ivorian set to move to the Italian capital on July 1 for around €25 million (£21.4m) plus a player-exchange.

The Italian sports newspaper is expecting young defender Riccardo Marchizza to move from the Giallorossi to Atalanta as the makeweight with only the final details to be ironed out before the Kessie deal is officially announced.

The newspaper also states Roma's interest in signing Fiorentina's Croatian midfielder Milan Badelj, another player who has been linked with Chelsea manager Antonio Conte.

La Corriere also quotes Russian media reports that Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic will move to Zenit St Petersburg after making a valedictory goalscoring appearance for the Blues in Saturday's FA Cup romp against Brentford.

Zenit manager Mircea Lucescu needs to reinforce his defence after losing Argentinian stopper Ezequiel Garay to Valencia.

Ciao Chelsea? Alvaro Morata's dismissal of transfer rumours on social media may just be a player going through the motions to keep Madrid fans on side.

Chelsea target Alvaro Morata was moved on Friday night to talk, via Instagram, of his disdain for rumours linking him with a move away from Spanish giants Real Madrid with the post coming hours after a report in Spanish media outlet Cadena SER that the striker had issued a 'him or me' ultimatum to his paymasters referring to Real manager Zinedine Zidane.

Chelsea, Juventus and PSG are all reportedly waiting to act on any desire from the forward to get away from a Real side in which he is unable to nail down a regular starting berth.

La Corriere also carried speculation on Friday that Conte is eyeing Galatasaray's former Lazio goalkeeper Fernando Muslera as a replacement for reserve keeper Asmir Begovic, who is reportedly on the verge of a €14m move to Bournemouth.

Tianjin Quanjian coach Fabio Cannavaro appears to have accepted Chelsea's Diego Costa will not be heading to China for the time being and has moved to sign former Blues flop Alexandre Pato.

The former Azzurri legend is also rumoured to be chasing Leicester City striker Islam Slimani.