It’s been a quiet January at Chelsea for the past 29 days, and it’s likely that it will be a quiet January for a couple more days, until the transfer window slams shut on Monday night … which actually will be the second day of February!
So technically we could have a very quiet January, and then an explosively loud February.
At least that’s what the rumor mill’s counting on, with multiple stories on Thursday talking about our supposed pursuit of defender Jérémy Jacquet. Again.
Chelsea were linked with
the, evidently highly rated, youngster a couple weeks ago, with some reports going as far as to claim that we had agreed personal terms with the 20-year-old. But any deal would’ve required us to break the club transfer record at Rennes, which they set by taking €60m from Manchester City for another Jérémy a couple years ago.
Understandably, we were not too keen on paying that, but we may be having second thoughts. According to The Telegraph, we are “still working to try to sign” Jacquet and not only get the deal done in this window, but have him join us straight away (rather than spend the rest of the season with Rennes on loan). The Ligue 1 side, for their part, appear to be standing firm on their record asking price — even with the potential option of Chelsea offering the recently recalled Aarón Anselmino on loan in part-exchange.
Fabrizio Romano likens the situation to Chelsea’s pursuit of Enzo Fernández three years ago, wherein we ended up paying the full asking price after weeks of trying to negotiate that down. Of course, the sporting leadership at the club now isn’t quite the same as back then, when co-owner cosplaying as sporting director Todd Boehly was still calling the shots, so a similar outcome isn’t necessarily guaranteed — though spending big on potential is now the primary m.o., and Jacquet would certainly fit that habit.
