Manchester City passed up on signing 26-year-old Chelsea midfielder Saul Niguez
According to the Daily Star (h/t Express), Chelsea were not the only club in the race to sign Saul Niguez this summer as Man City were also previously in the mix but refused to sign the 26-year-old.
The Blues completed a loan deal for the Spaniard in the dying embers of the summer transfer window, but the London club were not the first club in the race to sign the midfielder.
The Spanish outfit were keen on orchestrating a deal for Bernardo Silva from Manchester City this summer and offered the Citizens a straight swap deal by proposing that Saul will move to the Etihad. However, their attempts did not yield the desired result. (h/t Express)
However, the Etihad outfit had no desire to accept this deal as they wanted £40million in cash for their Portuguese winger, and Pep Guardiola had no plans of fitting in Saul into his squad.
Thus, they rejected the deal, and Chelsea pounced immediately. The Blues were trying all summer to negotiate a move for the 26-year-old, and they finally got their man on deadline day as they now also have an option to buy the player for £30million next summer.
The West London club only had the likes of Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, and Jorginho in the centre of the park as they had loaned out the likes of Billy Gilmour and Tiemoue Bakayoko to Norwich City and AC Milan respectively.
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Thus, it capped off a good transfer window for the Stamford Bridge outfit as they have a lot of depth in all the areas on the pitch, something Thomas Tuchel would need to actively compete on all fronts this year.