Chelsea a potential option for future free agent Jérôme Boateng — report

After spending big on the attack this summer, Chelsea will most likely target defensive signings next summer. Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma are currently the only two in the squad whom Frank Lampard appears to fully trust, and the former is just a stopgap solution for a season or two. To that effect, a number of centre backs have already been linked with the Blues in the past few months, from conventional options like José María Giménez and Matthias Ginter to slightly more unconventional like Declan Rice or Anel Ahmedhodžić, or even pie-in-the-sky names like Dayot Upamecano.

A new name brought into the news-void of the international break is Jérôme Boateng. According to BILD (via BuLiNews), Bayern management have decided against renewing the Germany international’s contract, and Chelsea, along with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are said to be interested once his contract expires after the season.

According to Sport1, Boateng, who was (is?) open to a contract renewal, has been left flabbergasted by this decisions that seems to have come out of blue, especially since he’s been in good form this season and also played a crucial role in Bayern’s treble-winning campaign last season.

While an explicit reason is not given, it appears that Bayern want to overhaul their squad (just as they have done in attack over the last couple years), and the 32-year-old Boateng is not part of those plans — and neither is David Alaba, probably, who is also likely to leave on a free transfer in 2021 (or a paid transfer in January).

All that said, from Chelsea’s perspective, it makes little sense to go for Boateng at this stage. Our recruitment has been focused mostly on younger players (just like Bayern’s!), and the vastly experienced Thiago Silva could always extend his contract (mutual option) if he continues to play and perform as well as he has done so far.