Milan asking for an option-to-buy signing with Tomori

are on the verge of signing with the Blues stopper

Fikayo Tomori

, who is not being favored by his current club this season.

During the first half of the previous season, the 23-year-old was played regularly; however, this season games are not coming by as easily, with him featuring only 44 minutes for

in the

and coming off the bench in the FA Cup battle against Morecambe.

Many English clubs have been eyeing the England international and Milan are in competition to snap him up. Tomori is willing to move to the

giants, as Milan are the titleholders and faced defeat only once in 17 matches this season.

Milan head coach

Stefano Pioli

is looking for a buy option in the contract with the defender, with them offering an 18-month load deal and went on to ask for an option to make the loan permanent with £26m.

Although not yet decided whether Chelsea would accept the terms, spending about £200m on deals last summer can push them to agree.

“

Fikayo Tomori absolutely has a long-term future at this club, and we’ll see if and when he goes on loan,

” Lampard said. 

“

The moment I got close to Fikayo was when I took him to Derby with me and he was player of the year there and one of the best players in the Championship that year in my opinion. 

“And then he came back and played 20-plus games for us at a very young age last year and got in the England squad. There’s an absolute long-term plan for Fikayo in my head about his career here. 

“And if it’s to go and play games it’s to absolutely enhance his personal development, hopefully help whatever team he goes to, because that will come hand in hand, and then come back to us a better player.”

Follow

for the