REVEALED: Chelsea have secret weapon to beat Real Madrid to €50m transfer

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca can play a crucial role in helping the Blues secure the signature of Bournemouth centre-back Dean Huijsen, who has emerged as a leading transfer target for Real Madrid.

The dramatic rise of the 19-year-old Huijsen under Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth has seen the defender linked with a string of major clubs, including Manchester United, PSG and Bayern Munich.

Real Madrid are the outright favourites to land the new Spain international, with Sport claiming that Chelsea stand best placed to disrupt a deal thanks to their manager.

If it had been taken as a positive sign for Real Madrid’s Huijsen hopes that he declared his international allegiance to Spain, the Spanish source says that Los Blancos do not believe that his arrival is inevitable.

Maresca has been studying Huijsen for years

Maresca can be an X-factor in the deal, with the Chelsea boss having an inside track to the mind of the young Netherlands-born star.

The Blues manager spent time as a player at Malaga, where Huijsen spent six years in the academy after his family relocated when he was five years old.

Sport says: “Maresca knows perfectly well the coaches who worked with Huijsen in the academy, the scouts who discovered him, and has had direct contact with the player’s entourage for years.

“Maresca knows about the centre-back’s development and knows in detail about his decision to sign for Juventus and his subsequent loan to Roma.”

As such, Real Madrid are wary of the threat that Chelsea and Maresca bring in this case.

Bournemouth are set to start the bidding at €50 million for Huijsen, which is more than three times what they signed him for from Juventus last summer. Equally, it is almost exactly twice his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV), which sits at €24.9m.