Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia has stepped up the club's pursuit for more signings before the transfer window shuts.

Standard Sport understands Granovskaia, who is in charge of player negotiations at Chelsea, has been away from her base at the stadium for the past few days working on targets.

Antonio Conte wants up to four more arrivals before the end of the month, one of which is Leicester City midfielder Danny Drinkwater.

The 27-year-old is believed to be high up on Conte's wish list as he looks to strengthen their midfield options.

Drinkwater has become one of the most influential defensive midfielders in the Premier League and had a major role in Leicester City's title win in 2016.

He also helped them reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League last term and Chelsea are back in the competition this season.

Significantly, he has an excellent rapport with N'Golo Kante, who joined Chelsea from Leicester last summer for £32m.

Drinkwater still has four years left on his contract at the King Power Stadium and it will take a large offer in excess of £30m to persuade Leicester to sell.

But Chelsea are determined to buy another midfielder as they currently only have Kante and Cesc Fabregas to choose from to play in front of the back four.

Their £40m summer signing Tiemoue Bakayoko is still working his way back to full fitness after a knee injury.

The club sold Nemanja Matic and Nathaniel Chalobah to Manchester United and Watford respectively, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek has joined Crystal Palace on loan.

Highly-rated Academy graduate Lewis Baker, who was left out of the squad for the Community Shield loss to Arsenal, is also about to be loaned out.

Conte has complained about the size of his squad over the past few weeks, but Granovskaia and technical director Michael Emenalo are in constant communication with the Italian over the players he wants and sources insist all three are on good terms.

As well as a midfielder, the Chelsea boss is looking for at least one wing-back, an attacking midfielder and another forward.

The 14 senior Chelsea players available to Antonio Conte 15 show all The 14 senior Chelsea players available to Antonio Conte 1/15 Antonio Conte has put pressure on the Chelsea board to strengthen further with just 14 senior players available AFP/Getty Images 2/15 Willy Caballero REUTERS 3/15 Antonio Rudiger Arsenal FC via Getty Images 4/15 Marcos Alonso Getty Images 5/15 Cesc Fabregas Getty Images 6/15 Andreas Christensen Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images 7/15 N'Golo Kante AFP/Getty Images 8/15 Victor Moses AFP/Getty Images 9/15 Alvaro Morata AFP/Getty Images 10/15 Pedro Getty Images 11/15 Willian Getty Images 12/15 Michy Batshuayi EPA 13/15 Gary Cahill Bongarts/Getty Images 14/15 Cesar Azpilicueta AFP/Getty Images 15/15 David Luiz AFP/Getty Images 1/15 Antonio Conte has put pressure on the Chelsea board to strengthen further with just 14 senior players available AFP/Getty Images 2/15 Willy Caballero REUTERS 3/15 Antonio Rudiger Arsenal FC via Getty Images 4/15 Marcos Alonso Getty Images 5/15 Cesc Fabregas Getty Images 6/15 Andreas Christensen Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images 7/15 N'Golo Kante AFP/Getty Images 8/15 Victor Moses AFP/Getty Images 9/15 Alvaro Morata AFP/Getty Images 10/15 Pedro Getty Images 11/15 Willian Getty Images 12/15 Michy Batshuayi EPA 13/15 Gary Cahill Bongarts/Getty Images 14/15 Cesar Azpilicueta AFP/Getty Images 15/15 David Luiz AFP/Getty Images

Names on the list to fill the roles above include Ross Barkley, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Renato Sanches, Fernando Llorente and Alex Sandro.

However an agreement for the latter, who is wanted at left wing-back, is increasingly unlikely with Juventus insisting again at the weekend that he is not for sale.

Chelsea will also make a move for defender Virgil van Dijk if Southampton do a U-turn and decide to sell.

The defending champions have millions available to invest on new talent as their net spend for this summer alone is only £32m and they expect to sell striker Diego Costa for more than that before the deadline on August 31.

Chelsea left it late last year to bring in two key additions in David Luiz and Marcos Alonso, who signed for a total of £58m on the final day.

They went on to have impressive campaigns as Conte led the team to the title and Chelsea are prepared to work as late as possible in the window again to get the players the manager needs.