RB Salzburg have doubled down on their stance in relation to Christoph Freund who football.london understand has verbally agreed a deal in principle to join Todd Boehly's project at Chelsea.
With the summer transfer window now out of the way, alongside trying to purchase another club to form a City Footballing group type of empire, Boehly's next tasks lie with rebuilding the internal foundations of Chelsea's footballing structure.
Marina Granovskaia, Petr Cech, Bruce Buck and more have already left the club in the early days of Boehly's reign and the American now has a massive task on his hands to build what he wants the club to look like off the field.
In terms of hiring a new sporting director, Liverpool guru Michael Edwards was an option pursued in the early days of the new ownership but Julian Ward's predecessor at Anfield has remained adamant in his stance to take a year out of the game.
Amid links to the likes of Luis Campos, Paul Mitchell and many others, one candidate came to the fore in recent times and that was Salzburg's director Freund, who has been responsible for the signings of Erling Haaland, Sadio Mane and many more during his time in Austria.
READ MORE: What the Red Bull group have done as Chelsea look to name Christoph Freund as sporting director
Despite a verbal agreement being in place between his representatives and Chelsea, his current club Salzburg have already come out to pour cold water on these rumours.
Managing director Stephan Reiter told Sky Austria yesterday (Sunday): “Neither Chelsea nor Christoph Freund spoke to me or the club management about something like that. Christoph recently signed a contract with us until 2026, which applies to him as well as to players, managers or coaches.”
Fast forward 24 hours, and the Austrian champions, who recently left Stamford Bridge with a point in the Group E clash with Graham Potter's side, have come out again to try and dampen any excitement that is currently circulating on Chelsea's social media.
CBS Sports' Ben Jacobs confirmed the statement with his tweet: 'Salzburg statement to me confirming they expect Christoph Freund to stay, despite their sporting director verbally agreeing to Chelsea.'
'“FC Red Bull Salzburg has never been contacted from Chelsea to talk about any transfer details of Christoph Freund. We expect him to stay.”'
Most Blues fans responded with their own Brighton and Marc Cucurella theory. This is because the Seagulls came out with a similar stance before the transfer was announced eventually.
It will be interesting to see if a similar thing is happening in this situation with Freund.
READ NEXT:
The £15m Didier Drogba inspired answer to Chelsea goal issue as Graham Potter faces key choice
Chelsea 'prepare' huge player plus cash Harry Kane bid amid Graham Potter's Aubameyang verdict
Chelsea's next five Premier League fixtures compared to rivals Arsenal, Tottenham and Man City
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shows true Arsenal feelings in revealing video of Chelsea star
Chelsea news and transfers LIVE: All the latest news, rumours and gossip from Stamford Bridge
