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Chelsea spent deadline day looking to buy a new midfielder, and only settled for the loan signing of Juventus’ Denis Zakaria, who moved to Stamford Bridge on loan.
Thomas Tuchel felt it was a priority to invest into Chelsea’s midfield late in the window, and drew up a list of targets he wanted before signing Zakaria on the final day.
Chelsea spent big in the summer, signing the likes of Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly, Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella, as new owner Todd Boehly wanted to show his ambition in his first window.
The spending could’ve got bigger had Chelsea gone for their initial midfield targets, and they had a list of four names they wanted for the position.
Four options rejected
Chelsea’s initial targets were the Eredivisie duo of Edson Alvarez of Ajax and Ibrahim Sangare of PSV, both of whom they failed to sign.
They were willing to cough up a £43 million fee for Alvarez and the Mexican star was even willing to leave, refusing to train for Ajax in the final day of the transfer window, but the Dutch club were reluctant to sell.
It’s reported that Chelsea will be back for Alvarez in the January transfer window and according to reports in the Netherlands, Ajax will be open to doing business then as well.
As for Sangare, there was reportedly a £39 million bid on the table but once again, due to the lateness of the approach, any move was difficult to complete.
Other than that, Chelsea also looked locally for a new midfielder, eyeing up Sheffield United star Sander Berge, who was also of interest to other European clubs.
The Norwegian could’ve moved to Belgian side Club Brugge, and after talks with the management at Sheffield United, Chelsea opted against making a bid.
Finally, there were reports that Chelsea were also interested in signing Romeo Lavia, who only move to Southampton from Manchester City earlier this year.
The Blues were considering a £50 million bid, with Southampton having paid £12 million for him earlier, but that was refused as Manchester City have a £40 million buy-back clause.
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