Chelsea ‘opted against’ signing Fekir, pursuing Pulisic this summer — report

A bit of transfer window post-mortem from Goal’s Nizaar Kinsella, who reports that Chelsea “opted against” signing Nabil Fekir in favor of keeping our current options at that attacking midfield positions. Chelsea apparently made that decision as late as the friendly against Fekir’s Lyon just a couple days before the close of the transfer window, and that’s despite both Giroud and Hazard helping to lay a bit of groundwork during the World Cup.

The Blues apparently also made the not unrelated decision to pass on pursuing Pulisic this summer, though the insinuation remains that the young American (and perhaps the French international Fekir, too?) will be back under consideration in a future transfer window.

Sarri apparently remains “keen on bolstering his attacking options in the coming months”, though whether that’s at striker (the club didn’t budge on Higuain — a “small regret” for the coach — in hopes of Morata coming good) or in attacking midfield, where everyone has two years left on their current contracts (including Hudson-Odoi, though Moses does have three), remains to be seen. There is a new deal on the table for Hazard, and tabloids have claimed this morning that Willian might get an extension, too (matching a brief flash of a rumor from Spain last month), but this corps of attackers isn’t getting any younger and at some point we will have to phase them out.

I would’ve certainly advocated starting that process this summer, taking advantage of interest in Willian and Pedro’s final contract year, while stealing a march on our competitors in the inevitable Pulisic bidding war, but Chelsea did not. Maybe the appointment of a new Director of Football will provide us with better clarity of thought to make the tough (or easy, as it were) decisions in the future.