High profile journalist Fabrizio Romano has ruled out the possibility of Chelsea star Andreas Christensen joining a rival Premier League club.
Instead he revealed talks have been ongoing between Christensen and European giants Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Andreas Christensen won’t consider any proposal from Premier League clubs to respect Chelsea. Barcelona and FC Bayern are both interested in signing him since January – still in talks. ?? #CFC
Barça have approached both Azpilicueta and Christensen. No full agreement yet. https://t.co/MmWGvQiCvY
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 24, 2022
A number of English clubs would likely appreciate Christensen’s qualities in their squad, particularly after his strong showings since Thomas Tuchel took over as Chelsea manager.
However, it seems Christensen has ruled out this possibility out of respect for Chelsea, and will instead only move overseas.
Bayern are already resigned to losing Niklas Sule in the summer after Borussia Dortmund confirmed a pre contract agreement with him. Therefore the signing of Christensen would make sense.
Meanwhile, Barcelona are simply in need of quality.
The Blaugrana are in an interesting predicament where they still need a long-term replacement for Gerard Pique who has marshalled the defence for many years and need someone who can play alongside him with the qualities they desire.
The current crop of defenders do not match these needs. Eric Garcia and Clement Lenglet both have the desired profile for ball-playing defenders, but lack defensive astuteness and strength to ever be a top class defender. Ronaldo Araujo is probably the best bet to partner Pique right now but he still needs to cultivate his on the ball play to be a considered a long term solution, while Samuel Umtiti is too injury prone to be relied upon.