That attempt got back to being a headline in the Italian media today, as former Biancoceleste director of football Igli Tare was interviewed by Corriere Dello Sport.

The former Lazio chief was asked about a few transfers he worked on, and recalled that Chelsea ended up blocking Giroud’s move.

“He was ours, only that at the last minute Chelsea got in the way and didn’t let him go. I tried everything. It was just this the reason. Great guy, Olivier. That year we had a great attack with Immobile, Correa and Caicedo,” said Igli Tare.

Tare didn’t clearly say when Lazio tried to sign Giroud, but most rumours linking him and the club date back to 2020.

The Frenchman signed for Chelsea on a €17m transfer from Arsenal in January 2018. In his time with the Blues, he had 19 goals and 14 assists in 119 appearances.

It was in the summer of 2021 that the Stamford Bridge finally negotiated him with Italian football, and AC Milan only spent €2.85m to get him signed.

Things have been better for him with the Rossoneri, and just this season, he has eight goals and three assists in 15 games.

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They spent €27m on the 19-year-old to convince Stade Resnais to sell him, and while he was always one for the future, the transfer fee suggested they would use him a bit more than they have.

While he has played in the EFL Cup, he has struggled to make a space for himself in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans for the Premier League, which is worrying Thierry Henry, France’s U21 manager, as he explained in quotes relayed by L’Equipe.

Normally a key part of his plans, the former Monaco manager has admitted that Ugochukwu’s situation at Stamford Bridge isn’t ideal, and if it doesn’t change soon, he might have to think twice about selecting him.

He said: “His situation is different (to Johann Lepenant’s) at Chelsea because he has players like Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in front of him, but he finds himself not playing, and, these days, these players don’t even play with the reserve team to find some rhythm.

“At the start of the season, you can make use of the pre-season, but those benefits disappear and I hope that he’s going to be able to last.”

That doesn’t sound like the most optimistic train of thought, and it’s clear that if Pochettino doesn’t start using him more, the 19-year-old might have to consider leaving Chelsea for game time, at least temporarily.

This, however, is something he will have to sort out with his club in the coming weeks.

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Three days later, Jeunes Footeux stated the Blues were one of the clubs to have watched him in action in his side’s Champions League victory over Manchester United. Chelsea and others clubs should have been impressed as the winger scored the winner against the Red Devils.

Apart from Chelsea, recent claims have linked Bardghji with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and a few other Premier League sides. Göteborgs-Posten got in touch with the youngster to find out about his views and his comments are relayed by Fotbolltransfers.

The 18-year-old believes the rumours of interest from Chelsea and other clubs mean he’s on the right track.

“It’s nice, it means doing something good. But as I said before, I don’t think about it much. I play at Copenhagen and I’m here with the national team now. But it’s big and I’m glad they’re watching one,” he said.

The Swede initially joined the Danish club’s academy from Malmö in 2020, before making his way into their first team in 2021. Prior to joining Copenhagen, he spent his youth career in his country.

The attacker feels he’s ready to make a move to a top European league but isn’t sure when that will take shape.

“Hard question. I have great confidence and believe that I am ready for whatever comes. I don’t mean that I should go now, but I mean that I have the confidence regardless of whether it would be now or later,” Bardghji explained.

“Right now, I’m at Copenhagen. I develop every match and every training session. That’s the most important thing for me, that development. When the time is right, it will be right, but I don’t know when.”

Bardghji has scored 11 goals from 25 games this season.

The post “I’m glad” – Exciting youngster happy with Chelsea transfer links, says he’s ‘ready’ for big move appeared first on Sport Witness.

Following an agreement with the Australian club, the Bundesliga side will be bringing the youngster to Europe next summer, when he’ll be 18.

It turns out that Chelsea had also been interested in Irankunda, according to German journalist Christian Falk.

The Bild reporter took quotes from the player himself: “There were offers from Premier League teams, but my father said he supported Bayern.”

And in what seems to be Falk’s own information, it’s claimed Chelsea were one of those sides.

It’s not clear whether the Blues made any kind of attempt to land the teenager, while Bayern found a deal with Adelaide United for just over €3.5m.

Irankunda has just started his professional career, and has nine goals and two assists in 39 appearances for his club so far.

What may have drawn Chelsea and Bayern attention are his performances for Australia’s youth teams, as big European clubs often have scouts at international tournaments to check out some talents.

As announced by the German club, Irankunda is now tied to a ‘long-term’ contract with them.

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The defender has been speaking in the Netherlands in comments relayed by Voetbal Primeur about this season so far and a possible transfer in future.

He returned to Chelsea in the summer after a successful loan spell at Burnley, where he was a key player in their promotion from the Championship last season.

He had looked likely to joined Vincent Kompany’s side on a permanent basis, but that deal did not end up happening and he remained with Chelsea for the time being.

He’s struggled for gametime so far this season, with Pochettino preferring either Ben Chilwell when he’s been fit of Marc Cucurella in the left-wing back position.

That’s naturally frustrating for Maatsen, who had been hoping to return from a good year with Burnley hoping to convince Chelsea that he was worth a shot.

He had left in the first place to get regular playing time and continue his development and admits he won’t rule out a transfer again in future either.

“In the meantime, I have to keep all options open. I may have to make difficult choices later, but then the club will indicate that,” he said.

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Their new piece claims that after turning down a €21m offer from the Blues last summer, Corinthians now set the midfielder’s price at €30m plus a percentage of a future transfer.

Chelsea, still, are said to remain very much interested in the player, and are claimed to be still leading the race for him.

The Blues should continue to get the competition from Milan, though, as this request is said not to be an obstacle for the Rossoneri.

Other clubs such as Arsenal, Aatletico Madrid, Barcelona and Liverpool are said to be on the youngster’s trail as well.

It’s always worth recalling that recent reports from the Brazilian media claimed that Chelsea submitted a new bid for Moscardo, and that’s set to be analysed by Corinthians once their new president is elected later this month.

It’s not yet said how much the Blues have put on the table this time.

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That’s according to journalist Tim Tempelaars on the VI ZSM podcast, who believes the Mexican would be best served remaining in the Netherlands for the time being.

Giménez is one of the rising stars of European football, having shone for Feyenoord since his arrival from Cruz Azul in a €6m deal in July 2022.

Since that point he’s scored 38 goals and registered six assists in 60 games in total for the Eredivisie side, helping them to secure the title last season and impress in Europe.

This year he has 15 goals and three assists in 15 games in all competitions, to date, with 13 in 12 in the league and two in two in the Champions League.

Those numbers have not gone unnoticed, and he’s regularly been linked with a move to one of the top five European leagues, with several sides in the Premier League thought to be keeping an eye on him.

Numerous reports have already linked Chelsea with a potential move, although they have been dismissed also, while West Ham are believed to be looking at him as they look to add the striker that David Moyes side desperately needs.

Neither move would be the right one for the player, though, at least as far as Tempelaars is concerned.

“Giménez is 22 years-old and plays week in week out. He plays under a trainer who is visibly making him much better,” he said.

“If you compare it with a year ago, he has made giant leaps. Who says that with another year Feyenoord doesn’t make any more giant leaps? He plays the Champions League. So which club do you want to go to to be able to do that?

“If you look at clubs in the current CL where he can play week in, week out. Then you come into the category Benfica, AC Milan. I think that is a step higher. I think Feyenoord can cash in well, could be a solution. I think Serie A is of better quality than the Eredivisie, so I won’t say strange things. In Portugal, certain teams do, some don’t.

“But for example, Lazio, Serie A, should he go to Lazio? Feyenoord has shown that they can be at least equal. Another solution: That you go to a real top competition, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, to a team that does not play the Champions League.

“But that does play against top teams in the Premier League every week. Then come you leave West Ham, Chelsea? I don’t know if you should want that. Those kinds of options.”

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However, his agent has, in the past, stated the player has a preference for Chelsea, which the youngster has now openly admitted.

This came in a chat with Bold.dk, where he was asked about his future plans and the interest of all the clubs in him.

Admitting that it was ‘great’ to have all these stories written about him, they only added more ‘motivation’ to work even harder and achieve his dream of playing for Chelsea.

Yes, that’s what he said, as he revealed he wants to go to the Premier League and play there more than anything, even if he is in a ‘very good place’ in his career these days at Lecce.

Asked if he has a favourite club, he replied: “Yes, it’s Chelsea.”

His idol ‘used to be Eden Hazard’, but since he’s now a left-back by trade, those have changed a bit into the likes of Alphonso Davies and Théo Hernández.

This is all good news for Chelsea, who will now know that if they want him, convincing him of a move wouldn’t be very hard.

The post “It’s Chelsea” – In-demand defender reveals Blues transfer dream, determined to get PL move appeared first on Sport Witness.

The defender has been speaking to Algemeen Dagblad in the Netherlands about his and Chelsea’s situation as he links up with the Dutch Juniors for the international break.

The youngster has barely featured for the Blues this season after returning from a loan spell at Burnley last season.

They were keen to sign him on a permanent basis in the summer but never got a deal over the line, leaving Maatsen to compete with Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella for the left-back spot.

That’s a battle he is yet to win so far, having featured in just 10% of the available minutes in the Premier League and played two games in the EFL Cup.

That means he was recently sat on the bench for the 4-1 win over Tottenham, a game which will go down in Premier League folklore as one of the best games in the history of the competition.

At times, it appeared Pochettino and his team had no idea what to do as Tottenham continued to play a high line despite being down to nine men, a bold decision that ultimately ended up costing them.

That result was a big one for them and followed by another huge point against Manchester City, in another classic, this time a 4-4 draw, and Maatsen says they were confident in both.

“We had a good feeling about the equalizer in injury time (vs City),” he said.

“A lot had been said about us, but we also showed against Spurs that we are on the right track.

“There was a discussion every minute (vs Tottenham). Then we looked at all those moments on the assistant’s tablet. After we made it 1-1, I knew we would go over it. You get a boost from such results as a team.”

The post “I knew we would” – Chelsea player on having confidence to beat Tottenham, and chaos of match appeared first on Sport Witness.

Fresh reports from Italy say AC Milan are also set to battle for the Brazilian talent.

As relayed by Gianluca Di Marzio, Sky Sport’s Manuele Baiocchini says the Rossoneri are ‘carefully following’ Moscardo’s development at Corinthians.

Chelsea do get a mention in the story about the 18-year-old, with it claiming that the Blues are one of the big European clubs interested in the player, as well as Liverpool.

The race for the player is said to be ‘complicated’, especially because Moscardo is highly valued, with Corinthians setting his price at €25m.

Reports from Brazil last week claimed that, following an unsuccesful attempt earlier this year, Chelsea recently made a new bid for the midfielder.

Since Corinthians are waiting for their new presidential elections, they’re said to be waiting for the result so the new club chief can respond to the Blues’ offer in the next month.

Meanwhile, we shall see whether Milan will try to get involved in a potential auction for the youngster, or simply hope he doesn’t go to Chelsea before the summer.

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