It was one of those reports you had to look at several times to actually believe it was true. It emerged on Saturday evening that Chelsea's new co-owner and interim sporting director Todd Boehly had met with Cristiano Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes.
As broken by The Athletic, Boehly met with Mendes last week, reportedly to discuss the potential transfer of Ronaldo, who has one year left on his deal at Old Trafford. Although the interpretation of some on social media to frame this report as a guarantee of a deal, or that there should be cause for mass panic, is rather silly.
As has been reported since, Chelsea were offered the chance to sign Ronaldo, rather than the player being one of the Blues main targets, as Raheem Sterling has become in recent weeks.
READ MORE: New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly meets Cristiano Ronaldo's agent amid Man Utd transfer exit talk
Already other clubs have apparently been offered the chance too by Mendes, with some suggestions that this is a tactic to force Manchester United to act in the transfer market. Who knows why this report came out or who leaked it, but on a positive note for Chelsea fans, it shows how active Boehly is in his new role.
Meeting a highly influential agent like Mendes should not be a cause for concern, it is what you'd expect a sporting director of an elite club to be doing. Mendes has a lot of clients, some of whom Chelsea may have a longer-term interest in.
Ruben Dias, Darwin Nunez, Ruben Neves, Pedro Neto, Renato Sanches, Trincão and a player who has been linked this summer, Wolves fullback Rayan Ait-Nouri are all on Mendes' list. Is it naive to assume some of these players may have been mentioned in an initial conversation?
Boehly has arrived in European football and a lot of groundwork needs to be done to establish new relationships with the impending exit of Marina Granovskaia. It would be quite alarming if Boehly was sitting on his hands not networking and laying the groundwork for when Chelsea's new sporting director arrives.
In the case of Ronaldo, a deal still looks highly unlikely, and given the wide acceptance of Thomas Tuchel's influence over any transfer this window, a pursuit for the 37-year-old would have to be given the nod by the German. Even with his legendary status, signing Ronaldo would be a foolish move given where those finances could be placed across a squad in need of surgery.
But the meeting should be received positively. This is a crucial step for Boehly to hopefully put Chelsea's long-term transfer plans in action and in front of European rivals for top targets. This was always going to be a unique summer, one full of rumours and activity that was guaranteed following such a seismic change at Stamford Bridge.
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