Chelsea and Roma have both held talks over the possibility of appointing Lille's sporting director Luis Campos, and the Ligue 1 club are demanding a £2.6m ($3.4m) to sign him, Goal understands.
The Blues have been without a technical director since Michael Emenalo left 18 months ago, with Marina Granovskaia taking over business dealings in her role as the club's director.
Granovskaia has always had final say on transfers, but her role became more wide-reaching and Chelsea have been considered in their approach to hiring a new director since the exit of Emenalo, who ultimately joined Monaco, where Campos first began work as part of the technical staff.