Chelsea have reached personal terms with Rennes centre back J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet for a potential January move, but negotiations are centred on a fee that Rennes consider non-negotiable.<\/p>\n
The decision to pursue defensive reinforcements follows a difficult start to the season for the Blues. Chelsea sit in the bottom half for expected goals conceded and face the highest average quality of chances across the division, factors that appear to have prompted a change of approach.<\/p>\n
Jacquet, 20, was originally one of three identified targets. Fabrizio Romano’s excited reports claim the French defender has quickly overtaken Como’s Jacobo Ram\u00f3n and Bournemouth’s Marcos Senesi in Chelsea’s priority list. The player, previously linked with Arsenal, is said to be \u201ckeen,\u201d leaving price as the only remaining obstacle.<\/p>\n
Rennes are understood to be asking \u20ac65 million (\u00a356.4 million, $75.5 million). That figure would become the club’s record sale, eclipsing the \u20ac60 million Manchester City paid for J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku in the summer of 2023. Chelsea’s offer has not been publicly specified but is reported to fall short of Rennes’ valuation. Only two January signings in Chelsea history have cost the club more than the sum Rennes demand.<\/p>\n
The move would also reflect Chelsea’s transfer policy under co-sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart. Since their arrival in 2022\u201323, the club has not paid transfer fees for players older than 25. Jacquet fits that youth-first brief.<\/p>\n
That strategy is mirrored in the current squad profile. Rosenior oversees the youngest squad in the Premier League and has described the group as a modern iteration of Manchester United’s Class of ’92. The article notes the contrast with that United side, whose youthful talents had experienced senior players such as David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes to support them. Chelsea, by contrast, remain light on senior heads, a point Maresca has publicly lamented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea have agreed personal terms with Rennes defender J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet; the transfer halts on price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172,1163],"tags":[983,1162,1393],"class_list":["post-6051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","category-transfers","tag-agents","tag-analytics","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}