Chelsea reportedly launched a €30m bid to sign Hoffenheim defender Niklas Sule before the transfer deadline last month.
The 21-year-old was part of the German Olympic squad that claimed silver in Rio earlier this summer, and he continued to attract attention from around Europe following on from his displays in the Bundesliga.
According to ESPN FC, Chelsea made a €30m bid for him before the transfer window closed, but were unable to agree on a deal and in turn they ended up re-signing David Luiz from PSG.
Sule is under contract with Hoffenheim until 2019 and wants to stay for another season with his agent, and the player himself, clearing up the situation this week.
“Yes, there was interest,” Karlheinz Forster, Sule’s agent, told Bild. “The English have made it clear they’ll still be interested next year.”
“I’ve got my familiar environment here,” Sule added. “That was and is very important for my development, and the base to put in constant performances at a high level.”
It was a difficult transfer window for Antonio Conte, as after signing Michy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante, he spent months trying to bolster his defensive options.
With John Terry and Gary Cahill available as his only experienced options in the central positions, he was desperate to add another defender to his squad, and eventually swooped for Marcos Alonso from Fiorentina and Luiz.
It was also claimed that Valencia defender Aymen Abdennour was in talks over a move to Stamford Bridge on deadline day, and so a picture is starting to be painted where Chelsea looked at various options before moving for Luiz.
The Brazilian international will hope to silence his critics this season as many have questioned his defensive capabilities. Whether or not he has the ability to improve in that area at this stage of his career remains to be seen, but it’s clear that he was far from the club’s first choice this summer with a string of other individuals based in Serie A being linked with a move to west London too.