Chelsea to ‘step up pursuit of midfielders’ ... in the summer — report

It sounds like Chelsea may be ready to accept defeat in our attempts to sign a new midfielder — or at least cushion the eventual knockout blow of the window slamming shut on Tuesday without proper reinforcements at the position — with the Telegraph giving us a rundown of transfer targets for “when [Chelsea] step up their pursuit of midfielders in the summer”. Not if but when, but when meaning summer not when meaning right now.

Those targets include all the familiar names, such as Enzo Fernández, Moisés Caicedo, Jude Bellingham, and Declan Rice, and one new-ish name as well in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Nunes (who was briefly linked in the summer before joining Wolves from Sporting CP). Nunes is the name that leads this report in fact, apparently also being targeted by Liverpool. Not that any of the other names are exclusive to Chelsea’s shortlist.

As far as the right now, unless someone does something unexpected (like Benfica or Brighton suddenly becoming amiable) or something outrageous (like Boehly paying Fernández’s €120m release clause), we’re probably stuck with an emergency loan (Franck Kessié was mentioned off-hand recently) or just a hope that our current group can recover form and function.