€80m pair wanted by European giants – but Chelsea will reject offers for one and the other is too expensive | OneFootball

The international break is coming to an end, but there’s still a chance to sneak in some fun transfer rumours before we get back to the business of the actual football.

Today has seen a pretty amusing and pretty outrageous rumour come to the fore. Local Catalan paper Sport is very well connected at Barcelona, and they have named two Chelsea players on a list of potential targets for the club.

Both Carney Chukwuemeka and Romeo Lavia are apparently wanted as the Blaugrana look to invest more in the “pivot” midfield position. Sporting director Deco apparently pushed for Lavia before Chelsea snapped him up in the summer of 2023, while Chukwuemeka was offered to the Spanish giants this summer, but their attempts to secure a loan were knocked back by Chelsea, who only want a permanent sale.

The Blues paid more than €80m for the pair, and despite their joint struggles to get on the pitch, they’re clearly both potentially top players.

Romeo Lavia in training at Cobham.

Lavia and Chukwuemeka likely out of range even for Catalan giants

Well, now we’ve all had a bit of fun with the idea, we need to stress one again how unlikely this is, due to Barcelona’s financial situation. They simply cannot afford to be shopping at the same table as Chelsea until their dire behind the scenes situations are sorted out.

Lavia is going nowhere – the plan is for him to be a key player here, and even if that doesn’t work out, there are a couple of years of goodwill in the tank before the club give up on him.

As for Chukwuemeka, that’s eminently more possible. But how much are Barcelona willing to pay for a guy with 23 league appearances in his career? And is that number enough to make Chelsea sell? We don’t think so.