Chelsea stop-restart Giroud talks; identify £25 million fall-back option

The Chelsea-Arsenal-BVB transfer triangle’s resolution will go down to the wire. And The situation could still get even messier, as Spurs are lurking still on the edges of the story as well.

The January transfer window slams shut at 11pm on Wednesday. Not much time left!

The headlines yesterday were dominated by Arsenal and Chelsea talking over French poacher of goals (and hearts), Olivier Giroud. The 31-year-old, who was previously subject of interest from Dortmund as part-compensation for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, is apparently much more keen on staying in London. Enter Chelsea’s £15m (€20m) offer, as first reported by Di Marzio, only to be denied by later rumors.

Turns out, there’s an explanation for that sequence of events.

Chelsea removing an accepted offer for whatever unknown reason explains why the rumour mill went from “deal agreed!” to “no deal yet” and negotiations still ongoing. No wonder Giroud is feeling a tad distraught by the entire situation, and is now facing the “longest 48 hours of his life”

So if that wasn’t silly enough, Chelsea may yet try for another pass at Fernando Llorente, hoping that the third time, after failed pursuits 12 and 6 months ago, would be the charm.

(Un)fortunately, Spurs have set a price at £25m (so twice what they paid in the summer) that should tell us to quickly turn around and not look back. Llorente, who will turn 33 in a month, has 2 goals in 23 appearances (700 minutes total) this season for Spurs.

Meanwhile, Michy’s just waiting for his green light to head over to Signal Iduna Park.

In any case, stay tuned! We’re into the final 36 hours of the January transfer window, and things are just heating up.