Roberto Firmino to Chelsea: The state of play - Fabrizio Romano

Carlo Garganese

• 17 Jan 2024 17:19 GMT
• 3 min read

Roberto Firmino will not be joining Chelsea in January, according to Fabrizio Romano.

Romano reports that the Brazilian has no intention of leaving his club side Al Ahli this month despite recent reports linking him with a transfer to Chelsea.

Chelsea are in the market for a top-class striker in January and have been connected with a whole host of strikers.

These include longer-term targets such as Victor Osimhen, Dusan Vlahovic and Ivan Toney, but also more recently-linked players such as Karim Benzema and Viktor Gyokeres.

The most recent of all, Firmino has been tipped as a potential signing for Chelsea, who have struggled badly for goals in attack this season.

But Romano has shot the reports down.

What did Romano say?

“Roberto Firmino is not planning to leave Al Ahli in the January transfer window despite recent reports,” Romano tweeted.

“Very clear message from his camp: he’s set to stay at Al Ahli. No changes expected.”

Firmino only joined Al Ahli last summer from Liverpool on a free transfer, joining the Saudi Arabia transfer revolution.

Despite a bright start that saw him net a hattrick on his debut, the 32-year-old's time at Al-Ahli has been underwhelming, to say the least. In fact, he hasn't scored a single goal since opening day.

So bad has Firmino been, he has only featured as a substitute in his last seven games despite being the club captain.

This led to claims that the forward wanted a transfer and had even been offered to other clubs in a bid to offload him.

But Romano says that is not the case and it seems he will be see out the rest of the European season in Saudi Arabia.