Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing for Caughtoffside is as useful for ruling out options as it is for telling us who Chelsea want to sign.
Often rumour bubble up online without any warning, and it’s good to have the ultimate insider run the rule over whether there’s anything to them or not.
When it comes to chatter about PSG defender Nordri Mukiele that has restarted in recent days, months after the original rumours, it seems we can stand down:
“On Chelsea, I’m not aware of contacts over Nordi Mukiele for now despite previous links. The price is not clear yet but Mukiele is expected to leave PSG this summer, this is the only guarantee so far. Talks will take place in June to understand the potential destination,” Romano wrote in his column.
The Blues were originally linked with the 26 year old before he made the move to Paris after he impressed at RB Leipzig, so one can see where the idea came from.
An option that has faded from the shortlist
Our historic interest in Mukiele came when we still had Reece James as our main option without a suitable backup. But the last 12 months have allowed Malo Gusto to establish himself not only as a solid backup, but as potentially one of the best right backs in the league. He’s only just turned 21, and has a great future ahead of him.
Beyond him, there’s Trevoh Chalobah and Axel Disasi capable of filling in, plus of course a wealth of talented youth players ready to step up. So we’re not surprised to see Romano claiming these links have nothing to them.
If Mukiele was left footed, it would be a different story. The priority in defence now has to be finding an equivalent of Gusto for the left, and we’d expect that to be much higher up the list than another right back.
