Chelsea ‘could’ act on Thomas Tuchel’s ‘long-term interest’ in Nathan Aké — report

Ruud Gullit hair-heir Nathan Aké left Chelsea for good five years ago, and while he’s been rumored to return on multiple occasions during that time, nothing ever seriously materialized on that front — even though Chelsea did have a match-option at one point for any bids received by Bournemouth, including the £41m one that took Aké to Manchester City two years ago.

Aké has made just 40 appearances for City, only about half of which have come in the league, though he also missed a large chunk of that first season with a major hamstring injury. The 27-year-old was more involved this past season, mostly as a center back with the occasional appearance at left back, but apparently he might be surplus to requirements for the Champions.

As such, his name is back in the Chelsea rumor mill, with the added notion that Thomas Tuchel has held “long-term interest”, since his days as head coach at Borussia Dortmund. That’s according to the Telegraph, who add that since Chelsea are talking with Manchester City over Raheem Sterling already, we “could” do a by-the-way, and start talking about Aké as well, which “might be tempting” for City.

So that all sounds rather tenuous, but Aké would be a useful signing (though not nearly as useful as if we had simply been able to keep him five years ago). But, what’s done is done, and his versatility and proven quality wouldn’t be bad to have — as long as the fee is reasonable of course, which probably isn’t going to be.