RB Leipzig manager Marco Rose and attacking midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai have commented on Christopher Nkunku amid increased Chelsea transfer speculation with the latter sending the Frenchman a clear message in the process ahead of their Champions League tie against Celtic - while Blues boss Graham Potter is refusing to comment on the matter.
Having spent £270million in the summer, one may have assumed that new owner and interim sporting director Todd Boehly would have slowed down in the aftermath, but the preparations for the future have continued at high speed.
As well as ramping up their search for a new sporting director, putting the works in place to solve the long-term attacking issues are active. The Blues have reached a pre-contract agreement with Leipzig star Nkunku.
football.london understands that the 24-year-old has been impressed by just how swiftly Boehly and Co. have moved in this situation to close in on a pre-contractual agreement with the Red Bull group. Having missed out on footballing director Christoph Freund, it looks like it will be second time lucky for the west Londoners in a Leipzig swoop.
READ MORE: Christopher Nkunku transfer excitement will not fix Graham Potter's bigger Chelsea concern
Chelsea had wanted the former Paris Saint-Germain star in the summer transfer window that has passed but for whatever reason, it wasn't viable back then as Leipzig's No.18 decided to extend his contract to retain his value, to the benefit of the Bundesliga outfit.
His release clause in this new deal is reported to be around the £53million mark but to beat competition from the likes of Liverpool and others, the part-LA Dodgers owner is said to be willing to pay slightly over the odds to ensure that no one else can hijack this deal.
Potter, who refused to comment on the situation from a Chelsea standpoint ahead of Crystal Palace maintained this stance when posed a question again in his pre-AC Milan press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
He doubled down: "My answer is that I don't speak about players that aren't Chelsea players. It was the same at Brighton. There are a lot of names out there but I will only speak about Chelsea players and not anyone else."
But what is the RB Leipzig stance currently? Well, manager Marco Rose said: "We don’t comment on speculation, we don’t care about it." Meanwhile, Hungarian international, Szoboszlai, is confident that the player in question can still play his part and remain focused this season.
Szoboszlai stated: "I have the same answer as the coach. We don’t talk much about speculation. He knows that he is one of our players and that he has to do the best for us. We know that he does everything for the team will continue to do so."
Chelsea fans: Do you believe it would be possible for both Rafael Leao and Christopher Nkunku to be signed in the same summer transfer window? Leave your thoughts down below in the comments section!
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