Chelsea spent the early part of last summer's transfer window trying to sign Achraf Hakimi from Inter Milan, but their pursuit proved to be unsuccessful.
The 23-year-old wing-back had just enjoyed a wonderful title-winning campaign at the San Siro and was attracting interest from around Europe. Hakimi ended up completing a £60million move to Paris Saint-Germain, despite the Blues holding a strong interest in the Moroccan.
So far this season, Hakimi has featured 28 times in all competitions for PSG and has been ever so impressive under Mauricio Pochettino - including in their late 1-0 win against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first-leg on Tuesday evening.
The Morocco international showed his attacking talents down the right-hand side, often linking up with Angel Di Maria. Hakimi's speed was frightening and was causing Ferland Mendy all sorts of problems down his side.
Hakimi's performances this season have been so good, that last month, his PSG team-mate Kylian Mbappe tweeted this when the right wing-back was representing Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations: "ACHRAF HAKIMI. BEST RB IN THE WORLD. GOOD NIGHT GUYS."
The praise does not stop there for Hakimi, with former Chelsea man Frank Lebouef lauding the PSG star, and perhaps reminding his old club of their failed £60m transfer and how they may rue it now.
Lebouef said, via the Express: "If not [the best full-back], he's [Hakimi's] one of the best. He showed after two minutes, there was a deep ball from Real Madrid behind Hakimi.
"We thought Vinicius Jr. was fast, [but] Hakimi is faster. After two minutes, he showed Vinicius that it would be a very tough 90 minutes for him.
"Hakimi is absolutely fantastic. [He] just came back from the AFCON [where] he showed to the world how talented he is.
"Nobody has doubts about that, but he just confirmed today that defensively, he did the job. He pushed Vinicius to defend because was attacking too."
What has Hakimi said on Chelsea?
Hakimi himself, when speaking in September 2021, revealed that he did receive an official offer from Chelsea.
He said to French news outlet L'Equipe: "I had two offers, one from Chelsea and one from Paris Saint-Germain. But I felt I had to come to Paris, that I would have been happy there.
"PSG is a great club, I really appreciate the support the fans gave me straight away. I was lucky because so many other champions joined me.
"I feel good at PSG, we have a dream team and I’m happy to be a part of it."
