Fulham gazump Chelsea, Arsenal for Jean Michäel Seri, probably

Chelsea’s hunt for a proper midfielder is set to continue for a while longer, as the Blues have apparently been gazumped by Barcelona Arsenal Fulham in the race for Jean Michäel Seri’s signature as per Italian transfer oracle Gianluca Di Marzio.

In short, welcome to the darkest timeline.

If true, this would certainly mean another disappointment for Chelsea ... unless we are completely certain that we can steal Napoli’s Jorginho from right under City’s well-financed noses.

However, things aren’t quite as simple, as is often the case with Silly Season™. Just six minutes after Di Marzio’s tweet, France Football reported that the last offer on the table by Fulham was in the region of €20m and if they finalized the deal, it would be an incredible coup! Coup, they say!

But wait! The story isn’t over yet.

Just seven minutes after this, according to Nice-Matin’s breaking report, no agreement had been reached between Nice and Fulham for the transfer of Seri.

Somewhere in between this and Di Marzio’s story, Manu Lonjon of Yahoo Sports France also managed to get a tweet in saying that Nice and Fulham had indeed come to an agreement around the previously mentioned €20m mark, but it was not Seri’s preferred choice of club.

Thanks, Manu! We couldn’t have guessed that a player who was linked with a move to Barcelona last summer, and then Chelsea and Arsenal would not have been jumping in joy after sealing a move to mighty Fulham. We just couldn’t have guessed this wild, entirely implausible scenario.

However, let’s review the facts. So apparently, Seri has agreed a move to Fulham and a deal was “done” between Fulham and Nice. However, Fulham and Nice have not reached an agreement for the transfer of the player. Meanwhile, the move is not the player’s preferred destination...

So what part of the deal is done? Did Chelsea even put a bid forth, given how low Nice’s demands are for Seri?

Amazing!