Chelsea unwilling to lose Zappacosta at this time — report

Davide Zappacosta is supposedly the number one transfer target for Lazio this January, and as hilarious as that statement sounds, Chelsea apparently don’t find it too funny (see also: Barcelona offering money and Malcom for Willian, which the Blues have stunningly rejected).

According to Gianluca Di Marzio, Chelsea have not given the okay to any transfer in this case either, especially to the loan-to-buy kind, and any potential deal remains very much in the margins.

In fairness, losing Zappacosta would leave Chelsea one short in terms of backups, even if he’s only made 10 appearances total (and collected just 18 Premier League minutes).

So unless the Elseid Hysaj rumors take a step towards reality or we’re willing to recall and trust someone like Reece James, who’s basically been the only consistently good player at Wigan so far this season, it makes sense to hold on to Zappacosta. We have plenty of time to sell him after all, with 2.5 years — at least it’s not 3.5 years! — still left on his contract.