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Chelsea ‘want Saul Niguez more than other clubs’ as Man Utd talks come to light
Chelsea are interested in signing Atletico Madrid star Saul Niguez.
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Chelsea want to sign Saul Niguez more than other clubs currently linked, it has been claimed. The Blues won the Champions League last term and have won their opening two Premier League fixtures this season. However, Thomas Tuchel is still open to the idea of more reinforcements having landed Romelu Lukaku already.
Chelsea have already spent big on signing Lukaku, paying £98million to re-sign the Belgium international.
And, now, Saul could be the next player to arrive.
Atletico Madrid are open to cutting the Spain international loose this summer as they look to balance their finances in the wake of the pandemic.
Manchester United have been linked with the 26-year-old, particularly given Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s determination to sign a new midfielder.
But Eurosport’s Dean Jones, speaking on The Football Terrace podcast, has claimed Chelsea want the midfielder more despite the player’s agents holding talks with other top clubs.
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“To be honest he’s been put on a plate for them,” he said.
“Saul’s agents flew out to England a couple of weeks ago and were basically touting around to all the big clubs, saying ‘this guy is open to a move right now, you can see his pedigree, the role he’s had at Atleti, if you want to sign him a deal is on’.
“So they went to United. City actually had been offered Saul a long time ago and actually ended up signing Rodri on the back.
“Chelsea were one of the teams that were put to him.
“And Chelsea are more interested in it than other clubs, they’ve been looking at their midfield and there’s a possibility for a midfielder to come in.”
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Should Chelsea sign Saul, he’d become the latest Atletico Madrid star to move to west London.
The Blues famously landed Diego Costa in 2014, when Jose Mourinho was in charge.
And they did the same with Filipe Luis that year although, like Costa, the Brazil international ended up returning to Diego Simeone’s side.
With Chelsea in pole position to sign Saul, that makes a deal likely.
And where the midfielder ultimately ends up, with Barcelona and Liverpool previously linked, remains to be seen.
Tuchel, meanwhile, recently made some intriguing comments about the size of his Chelsea squad.
"I am absolutely happy with our squad and the alternatives we have,” he said.
“It's not too big a squad, we were missing Christian Pulisic today and that meant everybody else was in the squad.
"That means we maybe don't have the biggest squad but that we have a very competitive squad in all positions.
“This, on one hand, is necessary because we play a lot of competitions and we play the World Club Cup in December.
“We also played very long last season and there was the Euros and Copa America.
"So if we want to compete we need this level. But at the same time, it's also important we're a strong group, this was maybe the key for the last half a year. We played with a strong bond and a great team spirit.
"This is a challenge for the team and for me to create this atmosphere again. And that everybody is ready to take hard decisions and keep pushing the team.
“If we do this we can achieve more than we have."