Transfer hope: Jamie Gittens
Chelsea Football Newsletter
However, the 20-year-old was still a Dortmund player after the first of this summer’s transfer windows closed at 7pm BST on Tuesday.
This is because after having a £29.5m opening bid rejected, the Conference League winners reportedly returned with two further offers, but none matched Dortmund’s apparent asking price of £55m.
As a result, Gittens could even come up against Chelsea having been included in the Dortmund squad for the Club World Cup.
That said, all is not lost in terms of a potential transfer taking place at some point in the summer, especially with Kehl insisting the two clubs remain on good terms when discussing the decision to reject offers.
He said: "There was contact with Chelsea FC, who got in touch again yesterday afternoon. We spoke again on the phone and exchanged expectations and different ideas.
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"In the end, we didn't come to an agreement because we have different ideas about the player's current value. But the talks were very, very respectful. We have been in very good dialogue with Chelsea for many years.
"We are happy Jamie will now be part of our team at the Club World Cup and are delighted he is staying.
"I'm not responsible for the late offer - but, of course, I still have to deal with it and that's what we've done.
"We looked into it very seriously, but in the end we also made a decision for ourselves.
"It's still absolutely OK that Chelsea made this attempt. And, once again, we are in good dialogue. Let's see how things develop in the future."