Thomas Tuchel's hopes of strengthening his Chelsea attack suffered another setback on Sunday evening as it was reported Ousmane Dembele had decided to join Paris Saint-Germain.
Chelsea currently sit 10 points behind Manchester City in the Premier League title race and the January transfer window looked to be a decisive moment in the campaign.
Yet with deadline day upon us, the Blue appear to be no closer to strengthening and, with the past links between Tuchel and Dembele, this is a setback that will disappoint many at Stamford Bridge.
The future of the Barcelona winger has been the topic of much speculation this month as his agent continued a war of words with the Catalan giants.
Dembele has struggled since moving to Barcelona in the summer of 2017 from Borussia Dortmund, as injuries and a managerial merry-go-round hampered his progress.
The France international's contract at the Camp Nou is set to expire in the summer of 2022 and Barcelona were eager to ship the attacker out before that moment.
But why did Chelsea miss out?
As mentioned, the relationship between Tuchel and Dembele is an incredibly strong one, and the perfect move for the player appeared to be to Stamford Bridge.
However, Spanish football expert Guillem Balague has revealed that the Blues did not go proceed with the deal as they did not want to rush the move through.
It also would have required Chelsea to part with players before being able to register Dembele in west London, something the club did not want to do.
Manchester United were the only other club interested in the Frenchman but found themselves in the same position as Chelsea.
