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St. Etienne want to keep Kurt Zouma until June

The fact that the defender's current coach would prefer to keep his best players is not at all surprising, but probably doesn't mean a whole lot as far as Chelsea are concerned

Philippe Huguen / Getty Images

We've been linked to Kurt Zouma quite a bit over the past few months, and yesterday we heard reports that Jose Mourinho has been in contact. Today his current coach had something to say on the matter, urging the club to keep their best players until the end of the current season:

"What is sure is that our season isn't finished, and as I don't wish it to be finished, we're going to keep our best players and even if there are some who go and knock on the board's door, I don't see why we'd let those players we wish to keep now leave."

"Because we were knocked out of the Coupe de France by Cannes? No. We're going to resist, the players are under contract and that's that."

Most of the papers will probably look at this as some sort of blow for Chelsea, but in reality, this probably helps the club in a January pursuit of Zouma. Several other clubs are reportedly interested in the player, but he'd be far less important to Chelsea this season than he would for Inter Milan or Monaco.

Everything we've heard thus far suggests that if we make a move in January, it would also include a loan back to St. Etienne for the remainder of the season. Whether or not a deal for Kurt Zouma happens in January is obviously still very much up in the air, but there seems to be little reason to change our thinking on the matter based on today's comments from his coach.

For those of you who still don't understand what all the fuss over Zouma is about, the player is finally eligible to return from suspension today when his club take on Lille. You can find out how to watch the game wherever you happen to live by clicking this link.

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