Chelsea in 'advanced talks' with Jean Michaël Seri despite rejected bid — report

Chelsea (and Arsenal) may have had bids rejected for Nice midfielder Jean Michaël Seri recently, but according to a few other reports in the last 24 hours, the 26-year-old is in “advanced talks” with Chelsea as he’s been “personally chosen” by Roman Abramovich.

(Ed.note: attributing transfer targets to Abramovich is generally a good way to tell when a transfer rumor is bogus, so consider this a test of truthiness for Christian Ollivier, the chief of sports at French radio station RTL.)

The Mirror also picked up this story, citing RTL while adding a potential contender in the form of Borussia Dortmund into the mix. It really shouldn’t matter however as Seri, who was vigorous courted by Barcelona last summer and is on the list for many others this summer, is supposed to have a €35 million release clause. In today’s market, that’s relatively cheap. Now someone just has to pay it.

Seri, or another midfielder of his ilk, is very much needed to reinforce Chelsea’s current squad and regardless of who the manager will be next season, the Blues should be doing everything possible to get this deal wrapped up.

But until that happens, “advanced talks” will just make for nice headlines and idle chatter ... and reinforcements for rivals instead.