Sampdoria targeting Chelsea mystery man Malang Sarr — report

Pictured above is Malang Sarr, Chelsea player, in the official Chelsea kit, taken on Chelsea media day last month. Other than that, we’ve had scant evidence that he’s actually a Chelsea player.

The 21-year-old center back was snapped up on a free transfer earlier this summer — one of the “seven new signings” narrative that is being used to pile the pressure on Lampard — and while there’s been a time that he was very highly regarded, that time is not now. Even Chelsea’s official announcement made it quite clear that he would be heading out on loan. At the time, we figured he’d be going to Bayer Leverkusen as part of the package for Kai Havertz, but that clearly hasn’t happened.

But unless he’s going to stick around, which would be a big surprise consider he’s not once trained with the first-team, we better get a move on in finding him a team. The transfer window closes on Monday.

One potential option could be Sampdoria, who are apparently in the middle of an “ambitious project” of rebuilding with young and promising talent after barely surviving relegation from Serie A last season. L’Equipe report that one of the players they’re thus targeting is Sarr, though there are others on their shortlist as well.

Sampdoria are based in Genoa, which isn’t that far from Sarr’s hometown and previous location, Nice — a very nice 4-hour train ride on the Italian Riviera — and are managed by former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, so the circumstances could be favorable for a loan indeed.