Surprise Chelsea Target Confirms He's Leaving His Current Club

Antonio Conte may be close to reinforcing his Chelsea squad ahead of next season, already with one of the Blues' manager's reported transfer targets dropping a big hint on social media that he's done with his current club.

The player, however, isn't top target Romelu Lukaku or Alvaro Morata, both of whom have been strongly linked with a switch to Stamford Bridge in recent weeks.

Instead, it is Brighton and Hove Albion goalkeeper David Stockdale who may be on his way to the Champions elect, with Antonio Conte identifying the 31-year-old stopper as an ideal number two for Thibaut Courtois.

Stockdale achieved promotion to the Premier League with Brighton, this season, although the Seagulls ended up surrendering top spot in the Championship to eventual champions Newcastle United.

And his tenure between the sticks for Brighton's promotion push appears to be the goalkeeper's last action for the Premier League new boys, as he took to Twitter today to all but confirm his departure from the Amex Stadium.

Stockdale moved to the South Coast in 2014 and has made 120 appearances for the Seagulls in that time.

One of Stockdale's final acts for Brighton was to somehow score two almost identical own goals against Norwich City. Image: Sky Sports

Chelsea's current number two, Asmir Begovic, is believed to be joining Bournemouth at the end of the season, leaving Antonio Conte in need of a solid back up for Courtois.

(H/T Metro)

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football, Chelsea FC

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

@JoeBaia