“They want to make sure that…” Matt Law on why Chelsea let Simons deal slip | OneFootball

Chelsea are surging through some serious business as we get into August.

The Blues are cracking on with numerous loans out, and some major incoming and outgoing transfers.

According to Fabrizio Romano, Jorrel Hato of Ajax is having his medical and signing his contract today. That deal could be announced at any time. What’s curious is that it seems to have overtaken a transfer for his countryman, Xavi Simons.

That deal looked almost done a week ago, but has been put on ice. On the London is Blue podcast, Matt Law explained why.

Law says Chelsea want to confirm outgoing moves before green-lighting Simons

“Had Chelsea sold Christopher Nkunku or someone from the first team group last week for instance [there would have been progress on Simons],” Law explained.

“The sale of Joao Felix helped unlock things a bit, but I still think they feel they need to make from proper room within the first team group… if Nkunku had gone last week, Simons could have come in earlier than Hato. But they do want to be sure of some outs before they go all in on Simons.”

You can see Law speaking in the clip embedded here:

Nkunku still not attracting major interest

That all makes perfect sense – it seems like personal terms are agreed with Simons and we know what Leipzig want. Once a deal to move on Nkunku or another first team player is done, it’s light work to get the winger’s deal done.

In terms of selling Nkunku, there’s not much really active interest right now, which is perhaps the only concerning thing right now. For all the talk of Bayern Munich interest, nothing concrete ever seems to come of it. Even putting the Frenchman in the shop window during the Club World Cup didn’t seem to do much to bring bids in.