We’re into the final week of the summer transfer window, and there’s a fair bit left for Chelsea to do.
We have about a half dozen players in the Bomb Squad™ who need to find good homes (Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling, possibly-Bournemouth-bound Axel Disasi, etc.), plus a bunch of youngsters who probably could use loan moves (such as Sam Rak-Sakyi), not to mention sorting out the futures of Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku … and then maybe also signing an Alejandro Garnacho or a Xavi Simons.
Those latter situations may be related of course, as we keep waiting for all the domino pieces to line up. It’s unclear which one will be the first to fall to then cause the rest to fall as well, but it probably won’t be Simons.
The 22-year-old attacking midfielder not only played this weekend but was in the starting lineup as RB Leipzig suffered a crushing 6-0 defeat to Bayern Munich in their Bundesliga opener. As revealed afterwards by their sporting director, Simons going nowhere fast at the moment.
“As of today (Friday), Xavi will stay with us. We’ve always said that we make all decisions based on sporting and financial considerations, and that’s why Xavi is our player and why he played today.
“The transfer market is still open. You never know what’ll happen. I can’t guarantee that 100%. Everyone knows about his ambitions. He’s also told us that. There have certainly been a few exchanges in recent weeks. As we saw today, Xavi was in the starting line-up. So, there has been no agreement yet. And that’s why it will remain that way for now.”
-Marcel Schäfer; source: Sky Deutschland via Goal
Obviously, things can move fast in football when we want them to, so Simons’ situations could easily change before the transfer window slams shut next Monday (September 1). So we might be in for a busy few days.
