Chelsea to try one more time for Dries Mertens before transfer deadline?

Chelsea have spent the first four weeks sitting on our hands this January, but fear not, we will spend the entire Transfer Deadline Day to try desperately to make up for all that time wasted and lost.

Isn’t this fun? (Answer: no.)

In any case, with a little over 12 hours still left before Friday’s 11pm (GMT) deadline, Chelsea have plenty of time to launch at least one more futile attempt for a player who’s not interested in leaving a team who are not interested in selling him. The Daily Mail’s here to inform us that such a thing ‘could’ indeed happen (similar to the Telegraph’s report earlier yesterday as well).

It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for us. (Spoilers: probably not.)

Mertens, like Giroud, may be into the final few months of his contract and thus heading for free agency in the summer, but unlike Giroud, he’s actually playing regularly (when not injured). Perhaps most importantly, he’s just 3 goals shy of Marek Hamšík’s club record total, and should easily beat it if he stays. Meanwhile, Napoli owner Di Laurentiis is more than happy to keep him, and maybe even get him to sign a new contract eventually.

But sure, let’s bid one more time. And then maybe one more time after that. Isn’t this fun? (Answer: you already know.)