This morning we’ve already reported on our writer Simon Phillips’ exclusive on his Substack about Dominic Solanke.
Chelsea apparently approached Bournemouth to ask for terms for a deal, but have been knocked back. He joins Viktor Gyokeres, Benjamin Sesko and Victor Osimhen on the pile of strikers we’ve thought about and ultimately moved away from this summer.
As our options close off, new ideas are having to be added to the pile all the time, and in that same piece Phillips suggests that Lois Openda is a potential target for us too as we move down our shortlist.
“Lois Openda of RB Leipzig is of interest and is also now being considered. Chelsea have had an interest in him for a while, as we actually reported here some months back. But he’s under consideration as an option again now this summer,” Phillips wrote.
A next level – and a Euros to prove it
One can see why Openda dropped lower down the list as other options came and went, but with a few of them definitively off the table now, he’s back in the mix.
He’s currently at the Euros playing for Belgium, where he can potentially impress scouts and raise his value even more after a really strong season with Leipzig where his partnership with Sesko brought the 24 year old 24 goals and 7 assists. It’s no wonder his Transfermarkt value has exploded to €60m.
In a way, it’s surprising we haven’t been linked with him more. His strong contract situation (he has 4 years let and only signed for Leipzig last summer) will make him expensive and hard to sign, but the one thing we know about the Red Bull sponsored side is that they have their price, and if you meet it they’re happy to sell.
We will be keeping our eyes on Simon’s column to see if there are any more updates on this front.