Bayern Munich head coach Julian Nagelsmann has addressed reports regarding the Bundesliga club’s interest in Chelsea centre-back Antonio Rudiger.
It was revealed yesterday that Bayern have entered preliminary talks with the 28-year-old’s agent and brother, Sahr Senesie, and when asked about the defender, Nagelsmann was refusing to give too much away:
“I’m generally not a big fan of talking about players who are under contract elsewhere, and besides, we’re outside the transfer period. I’m talking about him now as a football fan because he is a German senior international. He has made a super development. Thomas [Tuchel] has handled him extremely well – he was still on the sidelines at Chelsea a year ago and is now certainly one of their most decisive players.”
“He has incredibly good aggression and is a very good defender. I haven’t spoken to Brazzo (Hasan Salihamidzic) about it and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you either! I just read that in the media as well. I’ll have to see when the contract expires and then I’ll see if I still have money in my wallet!”
Foreign clubs are only officially allowed to talk with players once they have six months left on their contract so it is not a surprise that Nagelsmann was being coy when discussing Rudiger’s future.
However, discussions between clubs and player’s agents happen all the time so the fact that Bayern have registered their interest is not a surprise.
Rudiger has since stated that he has not held talks with other clubs yet, and there is a feeling that the German does want to stay at Stamford Bridge. However, it has become apparent that Chelsea have not been able to match his wage demands so far.
