After spending north of £220million in last summer’s transfer window, Chelsea were always highly unlikely to draft in any new recruits during the recently closed January window.
Despite their recent stuttering league form and decision to sack Frank Lampard, replacing him with Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea remained true to their word, with only a handful of outgoings acting as their January transfer window headlines.
Although the Blues, who will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start to life under Tuchel when they face Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday evening, were closely linked with the likes of West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice and Erling Haaland of Borussia Dortmund for much of the window, Chelsea were never going to launch moves of such magnitude mid-season.
Instead, Chelsea have already started to throw their plans forwards to the summer window, with Tuchel set to be keen to try and put his own stamp of authority on the squad he inherited from Lampard, just as most managers wish to do.
Although the German, who had only been out of work for a matter of weeks prior to arriving at Stamford Bridge, has only been in the job just over a week, he has already earmarked several key targets, including Haaland.
Others, according to reports, include defensive trio David Alaba, who is out-of-contract at Bayern Munich at the end of this season, Bayern centre-back Niklas Sule and Dayot Upamecano of RB Leipzig. With that in mind, it is clear that Tuchel wants to strengthen the Blues’ defence, with Thiago Silva, who is now at the age of 36, yet to sign a new contract at Stamford Bridge.
Whilst Alaba would be a free-transfer if Chelsea were to convince him to make the switch to west London and Upamecano would be the future of the club’s defensive-line, with the 22-year-old tipped to reach the very top in years to come, Sule could be the perfect choice for the here and now.
According to reports in Germany, as cited by the Metro, the Blues have already opened talks with Bayern about signing the 25-year-old in the summer. The Germany international is out-of-contract at the end of the 2021/22 season, meaning Bayern may be open to the idea of selling him this summer opposed to running the risk of losing him for free once he enters the final six months of his contract should he fail to agree fresh terms.
It is reported that the defender, who has featured just 12 times in the Bundesliga this season, would be sold for a fee of around £26.4million.
Should Chelsea be successful in their efforts to land the former Hoffenheim man, he would arrive at Stamford Bridge having already captured the attention of Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk.
Ahead of the Netherlands’ Euro 2020 qualifier with Germany back in 2019, van Dijk picked out Sule for special praise.
The Dutchman, as quoted by Bundesliga.com, said: “Niklas Sule is a great defender. He doesn’t play for Bayern without a reason.
“I’ve already had some nice battles with him.”
For Sule to have attracted such high levels of praise from a defensive figure as well-respected as van Dijk, it speaks volumes about the Germany ace’s talents.
He is a commanding, leading figure at centre-back and has no shortage of personal and collective accolades attached to his name; he was won the UEFA Champions League, the Bundesliga title on three occasions and three German Super Cups amongst others.
As well as that, Sule has had the experience of playing alongside some of the best talents in the world, as well as playing in Germany for the entirety of his career, meaning he will be no stranger to Tuchel and his staff.
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