Romano reveals the truth behind Chelsea's pursuit of wantaway PSG star

Tom Weber

• Updated: 5 Feb 2024 15:24 GMT
• 3 min read

Fabrizio Romano has revealed that there was not much to Chelsea's supposed January interest in Nordi Mukiele.

The Blues, like most of the Premier League's big-hitters, had a quiet winter transfer window on the incoming front, though there was never a shortage of links. Indeed, one of the players rather surprisingly linked with a late switch to Stamford Bridge was PSG defender Nordi Mukiele.

French media reported on Deadline Day that Chelsea had considered the 26-year-old as a right-back option in the absence of Reece James, who is yet again nursing a hamstring injury. Mukiele would certainly have been an attainable January target as the Frenchman was keen to depart the Parc des Princes due to his lack of minutes under Luis Enrique this season.

Mukiele, it will be recalled, was the protagonist of one of the window's most dragged-out sagas. Bayern Munich were in negotiations with PSG over a loan for seemingly the entire month before eventually giving up and signing Sacha Boey from Galatasaray for €30 million instead. Chelsea's alleged interest, therefore, came as something of a surprise.

'No talks'

However, Fabrizio Romano has now poured cold water on Mukiele's links with Chelsea, insisting that there was never any concrete interest in or any kind of negotiations for the French defender.

“I’ve been asked how concrete the links were with Nordi Mukiele towards the end of January, but I can say there were no talks with Chelsea, news not confirmed,” Romano told CaughtOffside. “Bayern wanted Mukiele, as I reported at the time, but PSG were not open to accepting a loan move with a buy option, they asked for an obligation or different conditions – that’s why the deal did not happen.”

Perhaps Chelsea should have thought more seriously about pursuing a deal for Mukiele given their recent issues and lack of consistency in the right-back spot, with both Axel Disasi and Malo Gusto deputising there for James without particularly impressing.