Chelsea ‘still short’ with ‘informal offer’ in Antonio Rüdiger contract negotiations — report

According to the Daily Mail — for whatever that’s worth — Chelsea’s latest efforts in trying to keep Antonio Rüdiger at Stamford Bridge beyond this season is an improvement on what has come before, but “still falls short of what is required to persuade [him] to commit his future” to the club.

The report by Sami Mokbel claims that after our initial lowball of £140,000 per week (at the start of the season that was swiftly rejected), we have now made an “informal offer” — whatever that means — of “closer to £200,000” amid resumed talks. The report doesn’t hazard a guess as to how much would be “required” to get Rüdiger to agree, but does bring up that mythical £400k figure, which remains unrepresentative of the situation (since it’s some random number plucked out of the ether “inclusive” of bonuses and sign-on fees and whatnot).

Perhaps the only pertinent part of the report is that the “lines of communication” remain open between the two sides — even as the Mail’s headline would insinuate otherwise — and Chelsea thus remain “optimistic” of eventually getting Toni to agree at a reasonable rate.

BONUS: This delightfully snide response to Mokbel by the Telegraph’s Matt Law