Sources have told ChelseaFC365 that newly appointed technical director Christopher Vivell heads up the interest from the club in attacker Marcus Thuram.
Sources believe Vivell see’s huge value in Thuram’s physical attributes, and highlight that is one of the things that Chelsea lack in attack. Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, Omari Hutchinson, Raheem Sterling and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang do not possess the versatility and physicality that Thuram does.
Thuram is enjoying his best spell at Gladbach, with the 25 year old netting 10 goals and assisting 3 in 15 Bundesliga starts. Incoming summer signing Christopher Nkunku is the only player to net more, with 12.
I believe personally that there is a good chance we will see Thuram in blue, this is the type of signing that the owners could really like, a cheap, versatile attacker that helps the books even more and would allow Chelsea to spend more heavily in midfield, whether that be January or the summer.
As ChelseaFC365 reported, despite the fan hype over a potential advanced deal for Enzo Fernandez, it was always very hard to do and therefore we were cautious due to some of the things we were hearing. As it turned out, the deal has collapsed since we reported that news.
Individuals currently working on transfer targets include Vivell, Winstanley and Macauley, who both joined from Brighton, Todd Boehly and Behdad Egbhali. Lawrence Stewart starts in February, we could not confirm if he played a major role in the signing of Benoit Badiashile or not.
Graham Potter is being notified of the hierarchy’s work, but figures inside Chelsea stress how much they want Potter to focus on the task at hand, coaching the team back up the table after a dismal run of results.
Sources have also confirmed the media reporting on Chelsea’s idea of “not being held to ransom” in this window. Fact is, clubs know Chelsea are in a desperate position with injuries and the table position means that as much as Boehly & co are ambitious, they are being quoted very high prices due to those factors plus the fact that no club wants to lose their stars in January. As The Athletic’s David Ornstein reported, Chelsea are going to try and be quite savvy with their business in January.
That does not mean that Chelsea will not spend though, they are working on a number of potential deals and will open the chequebook on occasions where they can spread the cost of a signing in the way they want to, whether that means other clubs want to co-operate with that, Boehly is not really concerned, he is a bullish and tough negotiator. Even when Vivell was doing heavy negotiating over Enzo Fernandez, Todd Boehly was still in the background and Egbhali was certainly casting an eye over the situation.
The budget is set and agreed upon by the co-owners, the way they want to negotiate is then agreed upon by the directors and co-owners, so there is no real room to blame one person or the other over a failed deal, there are multiple voices and multiple opinions on every target.
