Chelsea are considering a move for Cristiano Ronaldo, but it remains to be seen whether Thomas Tuchel is sold on the idea of trying to sign the Manchester United striker.
Ronaldo wants to leave United because of what he perceives as a lack of ambition in their summer transfer dealings and his agent Jorge Mendes offered the 37-year-old to Chelsea co-owner Todd Boilley last month. Boelli is understood to be intrigued by the idea of signing the Portugal international and the American has since held further talks with Mendes.
However, Chelsea are yet to step up any interest and Boelli, the interim sporting director, is likely to be guided by Thomas Tuchel’s thoughts on Ronaldo, who cited family reasons after failing to return to training at United on Monday.
Chelsea’s new ownership do not want to force unwanted players on their head coach and it is unclear whether Tuchel wants Ronaldo, who has also been offered to Bayern Munich, Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain. The Chelsea manager plans to form a flexible, fluid attack and has allowed Romelu Lukaku to join Inter on loan. Lukaku struggled to adapt to Tuchel’s system last season – the Belgian forward didn’t press enough and lacked mobility – and the signing of Ronaldo is likely to cause similar problems.
Signing Ronaldo would have given Chelsea a proven goalscorer, but despite scoring 24 goals in 38 games for United last season, it was debatable whether he had a positive impact on the team’s performance. United, who insisted Ronaldo wasn’t going anywhere and were unlikely to want to lose him to a domestic rival, finished sixth and often lacked cohesion.
Boehly will need to hold talks with Tuchel before deciding whether to test United’s resolve. There is pressure on Chelsea to step up their business. They are still in talks with Manchester City over a £50m deal for Raheem Sterling, who have held talks with Tuchel, and are waiting to see if Barcelona beat them to the signing of Rafinha from Leeds United.
Chelsea agreed a £55million deal with Leeds for Rafinha last week, but the Brazilian winger’s preference is to join Barcelona, who are confident they will raise the funds to make a suitable bid for him.
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Barcelona are also making progress with Ousmane Dembele in talks over a new contract. The France winger is a target for Chelsea, who must decide whether to leave their offer for Rafinha on the table. There had been speculation that the 25-year-old could stay at Leeds until January and wait for Barca to return with an improved offer.
Chelsea also need to strengthen central defense following the departures of Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger. They have targeted City’s Nathan Ake, Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt and Sevilla’s Jules Kunde.
Chelsea, who are in talks to send Hakim Ziyech on loan to AC Milan, have received an approach from Everton to sign Armando Broia. Everton moved for the 20-year-old striker after selling Richarlison to Tottenham. However, Broia, who is also a target for West Ham, Napoli and Newcastle, could get a chance to impress Tuchel in pre-season.
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