Chelsea monitoring Hakim Ziyech after failed January bid — report

Hakim Ziyech ticks a lot of boxes.

He’s good. He’s in his prime. He’s already scored against Chelsea. And he’s apparently wanted by Lampard.

And he probably won’t cost an arm and a leg, certainly not when compared with what the likes of Jadon Sancho are expected to go for (£100m?) and what someone like Wilfried Zaha’s going to cost for some unfathomable reason (£80m?).

And yet, despite those pluses, Chelsea still managed to fail with a bid for the 26-year-old Ajax Amsterdam star, with the Dutch powerhouse knocking back our approach last month, much to the Chelsea head coach’s “frustration”. That’s the word from the Telegraph’s Matt Law, who assures that Chelsea will of course continue to monitor the Morocco international.

Well, we certainly won’t fail with that! We’re very, very, VERY good at monitoring.

Ziyech signed a new long-term contract last summer, but that just means Ajax will have some leverage during the expected summer approaches from multiple admirers. They charged €75m each for budding superstars Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt last year, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they expected something similar for the older, but more fully formed Ziyech as well.