Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ethan Ampadu set to stay at Chelsea with Jules Koundé, Saúl Ñíguez deals unlikely — report

As we approach the final 24 hours of the summer transfer window, Chelsea’s pursuits of Jules Koundé and Saúl Ñíguez look unlikely to bear fruit — with neither team willing to play ball with the Blues. Sevilla have upped their asking price for the former’s transfer, while Atlético Madrid remain insistent on a buy-obligation rather than a buy-option for the latter’s loan. And even if the players themselves might be willing or even pushing to leave, their teams aren’t going to sabotage their own transfer windows by agreeing to last-minute moves without incoming replacements.

So, if those two deals end up playing out the way they’re trending, what do Chelsea do?

As we all might have guessed, no new signings would be most beneficial to players currently on the fringes of the first-team: namely Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ethan Ampadu in this case. As Goal reports, if no new midfielder or defender is signed before Tuesday’s 11pm deadline, the two Academy players (or Academy-adjacent in Ampadu’s case) would not be going out on loan — even if that might deprive them of more regular playing time.

It’s not an ideal situation either way, but I’d be happy to see RLC and Ampadu stay with Chelsea and compete for minutes, and hopefully they’d be happy to stay and do the same as well. You never know when opportunity might knock. Ampadu especially could deputize where either of the rumored signings might have, while Ruben could add some panache further forward in midfield.