Chelsea are reportedly still interested in a potential transfer deal for highly-rated Monaco midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, according to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano.
The France international looks a hugely promising young talent and could be an important addition for Chelsea to give them a long-term replacement for N’Golo Kante, though it’s clear he won’t come cheap.
According to Romano in his tweet below, the Blues remain keen on Tchouameni, but are no longer likely to be able to sign him for a fee of around €45million, with Monaco seemingly aware that his value has now shot up after his superb performances in Ligue 1…
AS Monaco director Mitchell: “Tchouaméni can be considered a top player, we’d like to keep him. Price tag? He’s as expensive as our Gran Casinó”, he told @tuttosport ?? #transfers
Chelsea are still interested – they know that he’s no longer available for €40/45m as last summer.
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 16, 2021
Chelsea shouldn’t have too much trouble paying a bit more for a talent like Tchouameni, with the west London giants always showing themselves to be pretty ambitious in the transfer market under the ownership of Roman Abramovich.
Even if Tchouameni is going to be more expensive now than he would’ve been a while ago, the 21-year-old could still be one of the better value-for-money options on the market in the near future.
One imagines similar players like West Ham star Declan Rice would cost a great deal more, so it could still be tempting for Chelsea to make Tchouameni one of their top targets and pay whatever’s required to get this deal done, or one of their rivals will surely just beat them to it.