PERSONAL TERMS AGREED: WHAT IS STOPPING JEREMY JACQUET FROM JOINING CHELSEA TODAY?
Chelsea have agreed personal terms with Jeremy Jacquet! Discover if the £56m Rennes defender can save Liam Rosenior's debut season.
Florian Plettenberg says Chelsea is pushing ahead with more talks with Rennes for Jeremy Jacquet. Right now, he’s at the top of their shopping list for centre-backs this month, and honestly, it looks like Chelsea will have to cough up a hefty fee if they want to land him.
Chelsea have made up their mind—they need a new centre-back before the January window slams shut. They’re trying to salvage their season. That gap in defence actually opened up last summer under Enzo Maresca, after Levi Colwill went down with a serious knee injury. He’s probably out for the whole year.
Instead of fixing the problem then, Chelsea decided to strengthen other parts of the squad. They put their faith in the players they already had, even though guys like Wesley Fofana have a history of injuries. That gamble really hasn’t paid off. The team’s nowhere near the title race, and even a top-four finish looks shaky.
Fans are on board with the plan to bring in a new centre-back, and at the moment, all eyes are on Jeremy Jacquet. The Rennes youngster has been on the radar of clubs like Arsenal and Real Madrid, too, but Chelsea has been working on this deal for a while now. They’re stepping things up, hoping to beat out their rivals and get Jacquet’s signature. There’s talk that they’ve already sorted personal terms with the player, but convincing Rennes is a whole other story.
Will Rennes actually let Jacquet go? They’re keen to keep him until at least the end of the season, hoping he’ll help them push for a Champions League spot. He’s locked into a long-term contract, so Rennes aren’t under any pressure to sell. They’re in a strong position to demand a big fee.
So, Chelsea will need to put serious money on the table if they want to get this deal done. For now, talks are picking up behind the scenes, and Chelsea are hoping they can bring Jacquet to Stamford Bridge before the window closes.
MUDRYK SPOTTED: STAR TRAINS PRIVATELY AT UXBRIDGE FC WHILE SERVING A MAJOR FA SUSPENSION
Mykhailo Mudryk is training alone! Read about his Uxbridge pitch rental, the 4-year FA ban threat, and his offensive gaming ban.
The Ukrainian international hasn't played for the Blues since their Europa Conference League win over Heidenheim back in November 2023. After joining Shakhtar Donetsk in 2023, he racked up 10 goals and 11 assists in 73 matches.
People started talking when he showed up on a football pitch this week, even though he's still suspended.
Mudryk Trains at Uxbridge FC
According to talkSPORT, Mudryk wasn’t actually training with Uxbridge. He just rented their 3G pitch and brought his own private coaching team along. The Honeycroft ground is about 40 minutes from his place, and his representatives booked it directly.
Chelsea had nothing to do with these solo sessions. Mudryk’s FA charge bans him from training or playing with the club.
If he’s found guilty, Mudryk faces a ban from football that could last up to four years. But the time he’s already spent suspended counts toward that total.
Back in December 2024, Mudryk said, “I know that I have not done anything wrong and remain hopeful that I will be back on the pitch soon. I cannot say any more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will as soon as I can.”
Other players like Sandro Tonali, Eric Cantona, Ivan Toney, and Luis Suarez have also received long bans.
Mudryk Banned from Gaming Too
Football isn’t the only place Mudryk’s hit a wall. In February, he got a four-week ban from the Counter-Strike 2 platform FACEIT for making offensive comments during a game.
Apparently, he made several remarks about the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during WWII. These killings carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army between 1943 and 1945 left up to 100,000 Poles dead, many of them women and children.
FACEIT’s rules say a four-week ban goes to repeat offenders, so this probably wasn’t Mudryk’s first time getting punished for his behaviour on the platform.
In a message to his fans, he wrote, “Happy New Year to all my fans. I just wanted to say thank you for your support. I see all your messages and truly appreciate them, so please don't give up on me, as I have not given up on myself. Can't wait to see you soon.”
DISCIPLINE CRISIS: WHY CHELSEA IS ON THE VERGE OF AN ALL-TIME PREMIER LEAGUE RECORD
With 10 games left, Chelsea's top-five hopes rest on fixing a disciplinary record that is the worst in the Premier League.
Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior isn’t messing around anymore. After yet another red card, this time Pedro Neto got sent off in the second half of their 2-1 loss to Arsenal. Rosenior’s patience has run out. That’s now nine red cards for Chelsea this season, which is over twice as many as any other Premier League team. Even Enzo Maresca picked one up when he was in charge.
It’s not just Neto. Marc Cucurella, Joao Pedro, and Moises Caicedo – they’ve all been sent off at some point. Chelsea’s disciplinary record has gone from bad to worse, and Rosenior’s fed up. With Neto now suspended for the big game against Aston Villa, Rosenior wants his players to get their act together and start taking responsibility.
“It needs to improve,” he told reporters on Monday. “My job is to build a culture where people own up to mistakes. If you mess up, admit it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. That goes for me too. If I pick the wrong team or make a bad call, I need to be accountable, and I expect the same from my players.”
Rosenior’s message couldn’t be clearer: sort yourselves out, or you’re out. With ten league games left and a top-five finish and a Champions League spot still within reach, Chelsea can’t afford to keep shooting themselves in the foot. They’re only two reds away from the all-time Premier League record. At this point, they could nearly field a whole team of players who’ve seen red this season.
Neto’s sending off came hot on the heels of Wesley Fofana’s red card in the draw with Burnley. Rosenior said, “You need your team-mates, but you’ve got to help yourself too. Pedro apologised to everyone, but we’re missing him on Wednesday. I need to see better behaviour, not just from Pedro, but from everyone. Too many silly bookings, too much dissent. If we’re serious about improving, we need to change this now.”
It’s not a new problem either. Chelsea finished bottom of the Premier League fair play table last season under Maresca, and they were bottom the year before with Mauricio Pochettino.
Asked how he plans to fix it, Rosenior explained he even had to sub Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez against Arsenal to avoid more reds. “It’s not always about punishment,” he said. “Sometimes, you have to show the value of staying disciplined. The stats don’t lie: when we keep 11 men on the pitch, our chances of winning go way up. That should be all the motivation we need.”
He knows setbacks happen, bad passes, and questionable refereeing, but he wants his players to react positively and move on. “I can’t keep losing players every couple of games. If someone can’t control themselves, I’ll have to leave them out.”
Chelsea’s running out of excuses. It’s time for the players to step up or step aside.
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