Chelsea make £35m bid for Daniele Rugani — report

At first when the Daniele Rugani to Chelsea story was broken by “warm weather enthusiast” Alfredo Pedulla, eyebrows were raised as centre back was the one position in which Chelsea, coming off a relatively mediocre season, were actually well off with as many as six options at our disposal including Kurt “Happy” Zouma.

It seems that the story may actually have some legs to it, as apparently Chelsea have made a £35 million bid for Rugani, according to Simon Johnson of the Evening Standard. Chelsea are apparently preparing a five-year contract with wages around £60,000/week, which would double Rugani’s current earnings. If things go as planned, Daniele Rugani should end up Sarri’s first signing as a Chelsea manager.

The amount of the bid is quite interesting. Unless the currencies got mixed up, £35 million bid translates to about €40 million, which is exactly what Juventus’ latest rumoured demands for Rugani were. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll accept — Chelsea reportedly met demands on Alex Sandro as well, a couple times even — but it’s certainly better than trying to lowball our way to a failed transfer.

The deal could thus boil down to whether Rugani wants a reunion with his former manager, Maurizio Sarri, or not.

Of course, there is just a slight issue with that part. Sarri hasn’t even been announced as Chelsea manager yet...