Chelsea search for a Cesc Fàbregas replacement took a turn for the worse yesterday, but possibly also towards more common sense as the Blues understandably appear to be a bit reluctant to spend big on another midfielder who’s slated to be little more than a backup, at least initially.
Having bet big (and lost) on the likes of Danny Drinkwater and Tiemoué Bakayoko over the past few transfer windows, spending another €40m, which is how much it’s likely to take to prize Leandro Paredes away from Zenit St. Petersburg, is reportedly not all that high on Chelsea’s priority list.
Le #PSG vient de faire une offre de 35M au Zénith pour Leandro Paredes ! Chelsea n’a pas encore bougé sur le dossier. @DiMarzio https://t.co/eAE3B2Piiv
— GuillaumeMP (@Guillaumemp) January 18, 2019
Chelsea have been unsure whether or not to sign a midfielder for a week now and so they should be. £40m+ for a back-up would be madness when they have so many midfielders on their books and out on loan. That's not to say yet they definitely won't do one...
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 18, 2019
Things haven't massively moved on since the €40m response from Zenit: https://t.co/kHwNOhOEvD
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) January 18, 2019
I've spoken to people in Argentina, Italy and Russia about him and they think a team would be mad to pay that for this for Paredes. #CFC https://t.co/czrqSrMbjr
One team who are slightly less concerned about frittering money away are Paris Saint-Germain, and they have now taken this opportunity to swoop in and, according to various reports such as from RMC’s Mohamed Bouhafsi, agree personal terms with the 24-year-old midfielder.
Mercato: Paredes d'accord avec le PSG, Weigl encore bloqué par Dortmund https://t.co/ZaxyKmBsa2 via @RMCSport
— Mohamed Bouhafsi (@mohamedbouhafsi) January 18, 2019
PSG and Zenit are still negotiating over a transfer fee, with the latter hoping to ignite a bidding war, but with Chelsea seemingly dropping out, they might not get their wish in that regard.
Of course, Chelsea will still need a backup for Jorginho to replace Cesc Fàbregas. In the longer-term future, maybe that job will go to someone like Mason Mount (ideal plans and all). But for at leas the next six months, that remains an obvious vacancy that needs to be filled ... and now there are less than two weeks to go in the transfer window.