Roma reject Chelsea interest in Greek defender -- report

One more defender can be crossed off our wishlist. According to Italian outlet Calcio News 24, Italian club Roma have rejected advances from Chelsea for their 24-year-old Greek centre back Kostas Manolas. Roma's manager Rudi Garcia wasn't willing to let go of a player as he sees as indispensable for his club's title push in Serie A this season.

Kostas Manolas went to Roma last summer from Greek club Olympiakos and filled in for Brazilian centre-back Leandro Castán as the latter took time off the pitch to deal with a serious disease. Solid and consistent, Manolas paired mostly with Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Davide Astori in Rudi Garcia's 4-3-3 to lead Roma to a 2nd place finish in Serie A behind Juventus with also the second-best defence, allowing only 31 goals in 38 matches.

It's unfortunate that we will miss out on yet another good defender who might have the ability to become a staple in Chelsea's defence going forward, but it's not the end of the world. Hopefully Djilobodji will prove to be a good stop-gap solution for the present as we look forward to better transfer windows in the future.