Former Chelsea star backs signing of £100m Brighton star and highlights key areas for improvement this transfer window

The Albion midfielder is set to join Chelsea for an estimated £100m, having been one of the stand-out performers alongside Mac Allister in Roberto De Zerbi’s side last season, as they achieved Europa League football for the first time in the club’s history.

Malouda, who made 228 appearances for the Blues in his six years at Stamford Bridge, believes his former club would have made a good signing if the Ecuadorian international can build another strong midfield foundation with his new £106m teammate Fernandes.

The Frenchmen said to Genting Casino: "If you look at the chemistry he developed with Mac Allister, I think that is something that could be replicated alongside Enzo at Chelsea. If they can form a partnership, then it would be a very good signing.

"I’m not sure how well he will cope to adjusting to the pressure of playing for a giant club like Chelsea, which is a totally different and more demanding environment than at Brighton, but he has proved that he is capable of playing at the level requited in the Premier League.”

Chelsea are coming off the back of a dismal 2022-2023 campaign, which saw them achieve their joint lowest Premier League finish and employ four different head coaches, despite spending more then £550m on 16 new players.

Under the new management of Mauricio Pochettino, the Blues hierarchy have spent the first couple of weeks of this summer’s transfer window trimming down their over-bloated first-team squad.

Kai Havertz has joined fellow Londoners Arsenal for £60m, while Mateo Kovacic has moved to Premier League champions Manchester City in a £25m deal.

Kalidou Koulibaly and Édouard Mendy have both agreed transfers to Saudi side Al-Ahli for a combined total of £33m, while experienced midfielder N'golo Kanté leaves the club on a free transfer to sign for Al-Ittihad.

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The West London outfit have also brought in French forward Christopher Nkunku for £51m and have been linked with Caicedo all summer, but Malouda belives Chelsea’s next top priority should be signing a goalkeeper.

The Premier League winner said: "l really think that Chelsea’s first priority is to look at the goalkeeper position. I think that has been an area where there has been instability for a while. Kepa and Mendy were competing for the shirt, but neither of them have performed at their best level with full confidence. Chelsea needs to find the right person to build the confidence from the back.

"I really think the spine of the team needs to be strengthened. The fundamental for any good team is having that spine and it all starts from being solid at the back. Looking further up the pitch, the signing of Nkunku is a good one, but there is a lot of uncertainty about the futures of Chelsea’s other strikers.

"Those players will need to be replaced and at the moment the manager doesn’t know who he will have in his squad to start preseason. Another issue that Chelsea have is that the players they are targeting are wanted by other clubs, so the competition is fierce and, because Chelsea are in trouble with FFP, we need to sell players before we can buy, which slows down the business that you can conduct now.”