Fabrizio Romano reported earlier this month that Chelsea have decided against a move to sign Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo in the January transfer window.
The Blues made an enquiry about a potential deal for the Ghana international last week, before they decided not to activate his release clause next month.
Sky Sports now reports that Manchester City have opened talks with Bournemouth to negotiate a deal around Semenyo's £65m release clause, as they close in on a move for the forward.
Why Chelsea need to sign a left winger
Although they have opted not to pursue a deal for the 25-year-old Premier League star in January, a left winger should still be a priority for the Blues when the transfer window opens for business.
gittens
Chelsea paid £48.5m to sign Jamie Gittens and £40m to sign Alejandro Garnacho from Manchester United in the summer transfer window, but they have both failed to deliver consistent quality in the final third.
25/26 Premier League Garnacho Gittens
Appearances 12 13
xG 1.90 0.82
Goals 1 0
Minutes per goal 720 N/A
Key passes per game 1.1 0.7
Big chances created 4 2
Assists 2 2
Stats via Sofascore
As you can see in the table above, both of those signings have offered little to the team at the top end of the pitch in the Premier League, with one goal and four assists in 25 appearances combined this term.
Garnacho has scored four goals in all competitions for the Blues so far this season, per Sofascore, but two of them came against League One side Cardiff and another came against Qarabag in the Champions League.
Their poor form for Chelsea so far suggests that the club still need a quality option on that side, which meaks it even more frustrating that the Blues once lost a young talent who is now even better than Semenyo.
The former Chelsea star who is now way better than Antoine Semenyo
Supporters of the club will already be familiar with the many tales of stars who have left Stamford Bridge and gone on to achieve greatness. Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah stand out as two of the stars who got away from them.
Jamal Musiala is another one of those players. He left the club in the summer of 2019, over six years ago, to sign for Bayern Munich as a 16-year-old, citing family reasons for wanting to move back to Germany.
Because of the family element of his decision, it is hard to blame Chelsea for losing the attacking midfielder, but it will still be a tough one for those at the club to take, given what he has gone on to achieve.
jamal-musiala-bundesliga-bayern-munich
Musiala, whose dribbling was dubbed "insane" by scout Ben Mattinson, quickly worked his way into the senior set-up with Bayern Munich, making his Bundesliga debut in the 2019/20 campaign, and has since established himself as a terrific talent.
The Germany international, who has a £153m release clause in his current contract with Bayern, has scored 64 goals and provided 39 assists in 207 games at first-team level to date, per Transfermarkt.
Musiala-Bayern-season-record-timeless
As you can see in the table above, Musiala has hit double figures for goals in each of the last three seasons in all competitions, including his first 20-plus-goal haul last term.
Semenyo, who is three years older than Musiala, has only hit double figures for goals in the Premier League once in his career to date, although he is one goal away from doing it again, and is yet to hit double figures for assists.
The Bayern Munich star's consistency over the course of several seasons and his outstanding output prior to his current injury suggest that he is a way better wing or attacking midfield option than Semenyo, as good as the Bournemouth star is, and that is reflected in their release clauses.
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Musiala, per his release clause, is worth more than twice as much as the Cherries star, whose release clause is £65m, and Chelsea may still rue the fact that they once had him in their academy and lost him to Bayern.