Chelsea FC are now off until April 3, when they’ll resume their Premier League campaign at home against West Bromwich Albion. In the meantime, we’ve got some transfer talk to do, so let’s dive right in. Erling Haaland, Borussia Dortmund’s superlative scoring sensation, has been linked with a move to several of the world’s biggest clubs, including the English trio of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.
The Norwergian wunderkid, with a release clause, reportedly of £65million, has spoken about all the transfer speculation surrounding him.
“I still have three years [on my Dortmund] contract. I am not upset about that,” Haaland said to Dagbladet.
“The media are the ones who write about it, I don’t focus on those things. I think only of myself, to improve my game every day.”
Okay, so that’s basically industry standard boilerplate there, but it doesn’t rule out a move this summer. No one expected Haaland, nor BVB to tip any cards right now on a potential deal anyway.
Moving on to a current Chelsea player, it appears that Thiago Silva will be sticking around for at least one more season. The 36-year-old Brazilian, who moved over from Paris Saint-Germain on a free this past summer, is set to sign a new one-year deal, according to the Daily Express.
The central defender has been out injured since February, but could return to action after the current international break.
Finally, we close with an item on another centreback, Bayern Munich’s David Alaba. He’s been in linked with Chelsea quite a bit, but according to Sky Sports Germany, he’s turned them down, as well as Manchester City and PSG. Sky claims that Alaba, 28, has decided to join either Real Madrid or FC Barcelona when he leaves Bayern this summer on a free.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.