Chelsea risk losing out on signing Swansea City striker Fernando Llorente as London rivals Tottenham enter the race for the 32-year-old, according to MirrorFootball.

What’s the story?

Swansea are expected to allow the Spaniard to leave the Liberty Stadium on Thursday as soon as they secure the return of striker Wilfried Bony from Man City.

It was widely believed that Chelsea would have a clear run in signing the Swans striker, who played an instrumental role in keeping Swansea in the Premier League last season, with a £15m deal said to be all but done on Wednesday.

However, it has now emerged that Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful of hijacking the deal and bringing him to North London instead.

Do Spurs need Llorente?

Bringing in another striker does make perfect sense for Spurs, who currently only have Harry Kane as their only established and reliable striker on the books.

Vincent Janssen has failed to pull up any trees since arriving at the club last summer and does not look capable of successfully filling Kane’s boots should the England international suffer injury throughout the season.

It could be argued that Spurs have enough attacking power to live without Kane in such circumstances but having another out-and-out striker in their ranks would undoubtedly be a wiser option than just settling for what they have.

Llorente would offer Spurs a similar style of striker to Kane but it is obvious he would only be a short term addition given his age.

Can Chelsea afford to miss out?

Diego Costa’s exile and impending exit from Stamford Bridge has only further added to Chelsea’s need to bring in another striker this summer. Alvaro Morata’s arrival from Real Madrid earlier in the window is seen as Costa’s direct replacement, but Conte’s side are still short in attack.

Michy Batshuayi is the club’s only other first team striker, while Loic Remy is still lurking about but probably deemed surplus to requirements.

Targeting a move for Llorente comes as no surprise given Conte’s relationship with the veteran striker – they worked together at Juventus.

It means Conte would be getting a player he likes, knows how to use and, more importantly, one who knows exactly what he wants as a coach.