Chelsea not close to appointing Christoph Freund, or any other sporting director — reports

Like when you accidental tap on an Instagram post instead of scrolling, and then you desperately try to un-like the thing before it becomes immediately awkward, there is now a “good chance” that Christoph Freund is going to stay with RB Salzburg instead of joining Chelsea.

That’s the latest twist in this brief saga, with The Athletic blaming their incorrect reporting on the “optimism inside Stamford Bridge” while others continue to double down on technicalities, like a supposed “verbal agreement”?

Given the momentous reporting over the past couple days, RB Salzburg’s claims to the contrary seemed a bit Brighton-esque yesterday as they tried to make it clear through a couple different channels that not only is Freund not going anywhere, but that no one has actually said anything about this to them (be that Chelsea or Christoph himself). But unlike in the case of Marc Cucurella, this time, it looks like the club’s word is the one to go with it.

The Athletic add that not only are Chelsea not close to signing Freund, the appointment of any sporting director is “not imminent”. Womp womp wompppppp...

And so, back to waiting.