Chelsea have reportedly reached a “full agreement” with Thiago Silva over a new contract that will keep the defender at the club until 2024.
The 38-year-old joined Chelsea on a free transfer from PSG following his contract expiry ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
Some predicted that Silva would struggle in the Premier League given he was seemingly nearing the end of his career and past his peak. But he has surpassed expectations at Stamford Bridge as he has proven to be a brilliant signing for the English outfit.
Chelsea have struggled this term but Silva has been a shining light for the Londoners. His current deal is up this summer and it comes as no surprise that they have been keen to retain him beyond this season.
Fabrizio Romano is now reporting that Silva is set to sign a contract extension until the end of the 2023/24 campaign. It is not ‘all done and agreed verbally’ after Silva gave the new deal the ‘green light’.
This new contract will be ‘signed soon’ so a formal announcement should come from Chelsea in the coming days.
A separate report from Football Insider states that young defender Lewis Hall is also ‘close to agreeing a new contract’.
Chelsea are ‘confident’ that a deal will be finalised after there was a ‘breakthrough’ in talks with the teenager’s representatives.
Speaking after Chelsea’s goalless draw against Fulham last week, Gary Neville lauded Silva for his “sensational” performance.
“The big positives for me were the centre-backs. [Jamie Carragher] has mentioned Badiashile but I thought Thiago Silva was sensational,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“He just impresses me every time I see him. He’s a world-class player, obviously. He could be so important – he is so important – to them.
“He has to somehow hold that dressing room together because there’s going to be some very upset, disappointed and dejected characters.
“We’ve just seen a group of players train here out on the pitch after the game at nearly 11pm at night. They are players, trust me, who want to be playing in the first team, they want minutes on the pitch.
“They don’t want to be training at 11pm at night in an empty stadium, and there’s going to be a lot of that this season for that Chelsea squad.”
He added: “So even though they’ve spent £600million, I looked at every department of the team and thought they still needed to get a lot better.
“I don’t know if that’s a worry or that will just come in time….
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…