Chelsea's search for a new striker: The state of play - Fabrizio Romano

Carlo Garganese

• 20 Aug 2023 18:36 BST
• 3 min read

Fabrizio Romano has revealed the latest on Chelsea search for a new striker, including the proposed moves for Elye Wahi and Dusan Vlahovic.

The Blues have splashed out yet another world record amount on transfers this summer, including bringing in Moises Caicedo for a British record fee from Brighton.

They also brought in attacker Nicolas Jackson from Villarreal, who has shown promise in his first matches.

READ MORE: Premier League 2023/24 summer transfers: All the Done Deals

But there is a feeling that Chelsea will still look to sign another natural number nine before the window closes if the opportunity arises.

The two most mentioned names are Montpellier’s Elye Wahi and Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, for whom Chelsea have been in talks for this summer.

Romano has revealed the state of play.

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What did Romano say about Wahi and Vlahovic?

“Elye Wahi was close to joining Chelsea and then go on loan to Strasbourg. West Ham and Eintracht Frankfurt also had an interest in Wahi, but he’s decided to stay in Ligue 1 and join Lens – he wants to play Champions League football and gets the chance to replace Loic Openda at Lens. So it’s an important deal for the French club, he’s joining for €35m.

“Dusan Vlahovic was also linked with Chelsea recently, but he could still stay at Juventus for sure. At the moment that deal is in total stand-by and nothing is happening.

“Let’s see what happens with Chelsea, I don’t know the future but as of today, it’s on total stand-by.

“And it’s also worth emphasising that Vlahovic-Chelsea was only a possibility discussed with Romelu Lukaku as part of the deal, not without Lukaku.”

Chelsea began the Premier League season with a 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool before losing 3-1 to West Ham in East London on Sunday.