Chelsea are considering a move for Cristiano Ronaldo but it remains to be seen whether Thomas Tuchel is keen on signing the Manchester United forward.
Ronaldo wants to leave United because of what he perceives as a lack of ambition in their summer transfer dealings and his agent, Jorge Mendes, offered the 37-year-old to Chelsea’s co-owner Todd Boehly last month. Boehly is understood to be intrigued by the idea of signing the Portugal international and has held further talks with Mendes but is likely to be led by Tuchel’s thoughts on Ronaldo before firming up any offer.
Ronaldo cited family reasons after failing to return to training at United on Monday and United are unsure whether the situation will allow him to fly with the squad to Thailand on Friday for the start of the club’s pre-season tour.
Chelsea’s new ownership do not want to foist unwanted players on their head coach and it is unclear whether Tuchel wants Ronaldo, who has also been offered to Bayern Munich, Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain.
The Chelsea manager plans to mould a versatile, fluid attack and has allowed Romelu Lukaku to join Internazionale on loan. Lukaku struggled to adapt to Tuchel’s system last season – the Belgium striker did not press enough and lacked mobility – and it is likely that signing Ronaldo would create similar problems.
Signing Ronaldo would give Chelsea a proven goalscorer but, although he registered 24 goals in 38 appearances for United last season, it was debatable whether he had a positive impact on the team. United, who have insisted Ronaldo is going nowhere and are unlikely to want to lose him to a domestic rival, finished sixth and often lacked cohesion.
There is pressure on Chelsea to step up their summer business. They remain in talks with Manchester City over a £50m deal for Raheem Sterling and are waiting to see if Barcelona will beat them to the signing of Raphinha. Chelsea agreed a £55m deal with Leeds for Raphinha last week but the Brazilian winger’s preference is to move to the Camp Nou.
Chelsea also need to strengthen in central defence after the departures of Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rüdiger. They have targeted City’s Nathan Aké, Juventus’s Matthijs de Ligt and Sevilla’s Jules Koundé.
Chelsea, who are in talks about sending Hakim Ziyech on loan to Milan, have received an approach from Everton about signing Armando Broja. Everton have moved for the 20-year-old striker after selling Richarlison to Tottenham. However Broja, who is also a target for West Ham, Napoli and Newcastle, could be given a chance to impress Tuchel in pre-season.
