Chelsea linked to Steaua Bucharest defender

Hey look, it's transfer rumour time. According to 22-year-old centre back Vlad Chiriches' agent, Chelsea are in pursuit of the Romanian defender. Along with a bunch more teams:

I can confirm that AC Milan are looking at the player. Milan's sporting director (Ariedo) Braida has seen him play several times both for the national team and for his club team. There is nothing concrete yet, though, and it is too early to say what will happen.

I don't know if he could leave in January, it will depend on the offers which may arrive when the market opens. There are many clubs interested in Chiriches - Chelsea, Inter Milan and Zenit - but there is nothing concrete in place as yet.

-Viktor Becali, agent. Source: Calcio Mercato via Sky Sports.

I'm pretty sure that Viktor Becali is both real and Chiriches' actual agent, so the quotes are probably legit. That doesn't mean that the Blues are actually interested, though -- it simply looks as though we're being invoked to drive up the price for Milan.

I've only seen Steaua Bucharest play a couple of times recently, and Chiriches wasn't really on my radar when we did watch him, so I can't say for sure whether he'd be a good fit if we were indeed in on the chase, but he's a young, highly valued centre back, so that's at least interesting. My gut feeling is that nothing comes of this, though.