Chelsea burned off major competition in January to sign former AS Monaco defender Benoit Badiashile.

The 21-year-old moved to Stamford Bridge in a move reportedly worth around £34million from Monaco but football.london reports both Liverpool and Barcelona wanted to snap up the young centre-back as well.

Chelsea fought off competition from both clubs to land Badiashile, who is said to have been attracted to their long-term project - something that could be reflected by the seven-and-a-half year contract he has signed.

The youngster has stated: "The main reason that I came to Chelsea is that they have got such an exciting project.

"I am really looking forward to the future, the plans for the future are really positive. They've obviously shown they have a huge faith in youngsters and it's a good club to progress as a youngster. It's a project that convinced me as soon as we talked about it."