Fofana exit, Gyokeres Arsenal, Musiala

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Wesley Fofana revealed in an interview yesterday that he had conversations with Marseille in the summer. It was a very ambitious transfer window from Marseille as they brought in a number of major new signings alongside new manager Roberto de Zerbi, and Fofana was one of the other names they tried for.

Marseille explored this possibility and spoke to the player, with Fofana now confirming in public that it was a very good conversation with OM director Medhi Benatia, who tried to tempt Fofana, though in the end he decided to stay at Chelsea because he believes he still has a lot to give to Chelsea.

Of course, it’s not been the easiest time for him at Chelsea so far, arriving for a big fee and then suffering injuries, but now he’s back and he’s fit and he really wants to succeed at Chelsea.

Fofana was tempted by Marseille as he loves the city and the club, but he wants to do well at Chelsea, and also the club themselves believe in him and think the best is yet to come from him, so they were never considering the possibility of letting him leave Stamford Bridge this summer.

Another possible reported Chelsea departure has been Carney Chukwuemeka. However, despite links, I’m not aware of concrete talks with Galatasaray over Chukwuemeka so far. Chelsea always considered Carney only available on a permanent deal, not on loan…so the only way would be to change Chelsea management’s mind, but this hasn’t happened so far.

Andriy Lunin did very well last season when he replaced the injured Thibaut Courtois in goal for Real Madrid, but then he had a slightly complicated summer. Although he had a new contract proposal on the table from Real Madrid, he also preferred to consider his options to see if he would have the opportunity to move and perhaps be a number one somewhere else.

Lunin performed excellently for Real Madrid, but when Courtois returned from injury he was the clear number one again, and so we had plenty of rumours about Lunin’s future in the summer. There were links with Chelsea at one point, but although they spoke with his agent Jorge Mendes as they were already discussing Joao Felix, and Lunin was a topic, it was never a concrete…