The agent of former Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger claims the Blues made next to no effort to keep the Germany international at the club.
Rudiger ended up moving from Stamford Bridge to Real Madrid on a free transfer this summer, in what was undoubtedly a big blow, forcing the west London giants to splash the cash on big names like Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana in order to replace him.
Chelsea fans will be pleased that big-name replacements have come in, but they will also surely hope that everything possible was done to try to keep a world class player like Rudiger.
However, the player’s representative, Saif Rubie, has claimed otherwise, suggesting that Chelsea did little to try to keep him.
In a heated exchange with Simon Jordan on talkSPORT, Rubie discussed Rudiger and other big names, with his quotes on Madrid’s new signing certainly sure to raise one or two eyebrows.
“What if I told you Chelsea, and the old regime, basically made next to no effort to keep the player,” Rubie said.
“At the time he was very happy to stay and potentially be the captain of the club. He was offered a contract that was half the amount Romelu Lukaku were earning.
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“You are talking about trading in the margins.”
He added: “Let me confirm this, live on air, the Real Madrid deal was the smallest deal on offer.
“There was a club in England offering almost double the amount and a club in Europe doubling the amount.
“I’m not going to discuss the specifics. Everyone knows there was teams interested in this player. He was one of the best in the world.”
CFC was not allowed to conduct business during the time period involved. It seems odd to leave that piece of information out of the article. They couldn’t sell merchandise and could not sell food/beverage at the stadium.