Badiashile to Milan? Romano reveals TRUTH behind Chelsea star's links
Tom Weber
- Updated: 17 Nov 2023 16:27 GMT
- 3 min read
Fabrizio Romano has doused cold water on the reports linking Chelsea defender Benoit Badiashile to AC Milan.
Signed from Monaco for a whopping €38 million in January 2023, things have not been easy for the French defender at Stamford Bridge. Highly rated during his time in Ligue 1, the 22-year-old was brought in to form a solid, long-term partnership with Wesley Fofana at Chelsea.
But just as things haven't panned out like that for Fofana, who is yet again out with a long-term knee injury, Badiashile too has struggled. Coming into a toxic Chelsea environment in the midst of their dreadful 2022/23 campaign, the defender featured regularly following his arrival but couldn't lift the Blues out of their mid-table mediocrity.
READ: The Conor Gallagher stat that proves he deserves a new Chelsea contract despite U-turn threat
This season has been even worse on a personal level as, just like Fofana, the 22-year-old has struggled for fitness. Indeed, Badiashile has thus far only featured once this term, playing 60 minutes - and scoring - in the Carabao Cup against Blackburn at the beginning of November.
The fact that he has played so little this term has given rise to surprising rumours that could be the next Chelsea star to head to AC Milan after Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic. Fabrizio Romano, however, has dismissed these reports.
What did Romano say?
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the Italian said: "Today in Italy in the press, we had some rumours about Benoit Badiashile and AC Milan over a potential January move."
"From what I'm hearing, the only player expected to leave Chelsea in January in that position - at centre-back - is Trevoh Chalobah. Chalobah is going to leave Chelsea in January. For Badiashile, Chelsea invested big money last year, so letting him go for cheap money is something that they are absolutely not considering."
READ: Arsenal legend Henry admits concern for Chelsea summer signing
"It's true that Milan could appreciate the player, scout the player, but at the moment for Chelsea the idea is very clear: the player leaving in January is Trevoh Chalobah...Badiashile [is] still absolutely part of Chelsea's plans, and also for Milan to spend, I don't know, €35, 40, 45 million on Badiashile is something that in January they can't and won't do."
