Watford bid £10m for Chelsea fringe player on deadline day

Watford failed with a last ditch attempt to sign Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and were even willing to send Heurelho Gomes the other way, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Begovic, 29, was heavily linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge towards the end of the January transfer window with Bournemouth favourite to land the Bosnia international.

Eddie Howe’s side tabled a £10m offer for the former Stoke City ace but were left in limbo as Chelsea tried to sign a replacement before Tuesday’s 11pm deadline.

Antonio Conte’s side failed with a move for Celtic No.1 Craig Gordon and it has now emerged that Watford matched Bournemouth’s offer and were even willing to give them Gomes in addition to solve their search for Thibaut Courtois’ understudy for the remainder of the season.

However, Chelsea rejected Watford’s offer as they were not interested in brining the former Tottenham goalkeeper to Stamford Bridge as backup to Courtois.

Begovic is now set to sit on the bench for the remainder of the season unless Courtois is unavailable, with the Bosnian’s only guaranteed chance of first-team football set to come in the FA Cup.

For more stats on Asmir Begovic, click here to visit his WhoScored player page