The Mirror recounted the long-standing story that Didier Drogba is reaching the end of his tether at the Bridge, with the Ivorian allegedly keen to follow Jose Mourinho in departing the London club.
AC Milan are said to be leading the race for the 29-year-old's signature, although the big two in Spain are also said to be interested: as such, there should be little problem in selling Drogba on in summer, should he in fact be eager to leave.
Andriy Shevchenko, meanwhile, has by and large been a disappointment since signing on from AC Milan in 2006 for a mammoth fee in the region of €40m, and could yet be sold back to his old club at a knock-down price.
Such moves would leave a vacancy in attack, with Benzema said to be the leading target among the Chelsea hierarchy to fill it.
The 20-year-old is already an established goalscorer and a French international, with Europe's top clubs all having apparently scouted him on at least one occasion.
Chelsea will no doubt have the financial clout to land him, but there are two major obstacles standing in their way.
The first is that Benzema has stated on more than one occasion that he's looking to complete another season at the Stade Gerland before moving on to pastures new, meaning that he'd be unavailable until July 2009.
The second is that, even if he is ready to move earlier than that, he has also declared that he'd be more amenable to a switch to Italy or Spain than England, due to the Premier League not really suiting his style of play.
