Reports in from Germany suggest that Chelsea a preparing an approach for Schalke’s £15 million-rated central defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos.
If true it would seem as though the Blues are taking a lot of interest in the Bundesliga as they’re currently chasing Bayer Leverkusen’s Andre Schurrle and it’s also rumoured that Jose Mourinho is to be Chelsea’s next manager, and he has an active interest in Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski.
21-year-old Papadopoulos is highly rated in Europe and has attracted interest from the likes of Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Zenit St Petersburg in the past, no doubt impressed by his tenacious style and versatility.
It could prove difficult to prise the Greek defender away from Schalke as he’s under contract until 2016, but German publication Kicker believe that Chelsea’s technical director Michael Emenalo is keen on Papadopoulos and wants to open talks in relation to a transfer in the next fortnight.
I don’t think there’s any urgency for Chelsea to bring another defender in as we have a number of useful ones out on loan but should David Luiz’s future lie in a midfield role and a defender leaves then he looks a useful option. He’s also very young, so would hold resale value as well as the promise of a good few years service.
I’m not going to pretend that I’m a regular viewer of the German Bundesliga and I have seen Schalke 04 a number of times this season. If we were to go shopping for a centre back in that particular league then I would prefer to see us go for Papadopoulos’ team-mate Benedikt Höwedes. That’s not to say that the Greek defender isn’t worth going for, just that we have a lot of youngsters already and I think Höwedes is first-team ready, also reckon him to be a more accomplished defender than Dortmund’s Mats Hummels.
