Romano explains why Chelsea aren’t ready for £60m defender bid in January | OneFootball

Fabrizio Romano has just given his usual Daily Briefing to CaughtOffside, and as always there’s plenty of juicy Chelsea content in there.

The hot topic of the week is Castello Lukeba, and there was clearly a clamour online for information about the defender’s links to the Blues. Unfortunately for curious fans, Romano has rather shot down the idea:

“At the moment, there’s nothing concrete to report concerning a Chelsea move for Castello Lukeba,” he noted in his exclusive Daily Briefing.

“There are no talks and no negotiations ongoing. Several top clubs have been following Lukeba for months, clubs from Spain and England… but after selling Simakan in August, I don’t think it will be easy at all for any club to sign Lukeba from Leipzig in January.”

There’s no rush for Chelsea – and so no reason they would try and force Leipzig’s hand in January, unless they feel they’re desperate for the 21 year old and his price will rise next summer due to competition from other teams.

Castello Lukeba playing for RB Leipzig (Photo by Pau Barrena/Getty Images)

Chelsea’s defensive stack

To us, it seems that any attempt to sign another defender would depend on sales. Trevoh Chalobah is as good as gone, and looks likely to join Crystal Palace on a permanent deal when his loan there finishes. But even beyond that the four senior options we have, followed by numerous academy talents and youngsters on loan, means there’s simply no room.

Potential transfer interest in someone like Axel Disasi or Benoit Badiashile would likely be necessary for Chelsea to start getting serious about Lukeba.

Despite the depth we have, and the great potential of players like Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana, there’s still a sense that a truly dominant centre back would improve this team. Is Lukeba that man? He’s certainly a player to keep your eye on, even if our interest isn’t too active at the moment. We’ve been linked to the defender before, when it was revealed that he has a £60m release clause in his contract – so there’s a hard limit to what we can pay.