Chelsea transfer news: Huge update on Antonio Rudiger's Stamford Bridge future | OneFootball

Chelsea still have 'so much work to do' to convince star defender Antonio Rudiger to stay at the club beyond the current campaign, according to journalist Dean Jones.

The highly-rated 28-year-old has entered the final six months of his contract with the capital club and is yet to agree terms on a new deal, opening up the possibility of him departing on a free transfer in the summer.

What is the latest news involving Rudiger?

Rudiger has established himself as one of the leading centre-backs in the Premier League since arriving at Stamford Bridge from AS Roma back in 2017.

In 177 appearances for Chelsea, the 49-cap Germany international has scored 10 goals and laid on a further seven assists, winning the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League along the way.

However, Rudiger's future has now been thrown into doubt after he turned down the Blues' initial offer of around £140,000-a-week.

According to well-respected reporter and transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, the 6 foot 2 monster is wanted by Spanish giants Real Madrid as a free agent, while his salary demands have seen Bayern Munich pull out of the race for his signature.

Now though, The Telegraph have claimed Chelsea are expected to make a renewed attempt to keep Rudiger at the club past this season, with the player open to the idea of putting pen to paper on fresh terms.

The report states that the commanding defender is set to demand a wage of £200,000-per-week, a fee that the reigning European champions could get close to matching.

What has Jones said about Rudiger?

Although Chelsea remain hopeful of tying Rudiger down to a new deal, there are fears he could still be tempted to depart by the lure of a bumper signing-on fee elsewhere.

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And Jones has revealed Thomas Tuchel's charges are still some way off from getting his contract extension over the line.

He told GiveMeSport: “I know there is a lot of positive noise from the Chelsea side of things on Rudiger but they still have so much work to do to convince him to stay, from what I'm hearing on the other side of things.”

Would Rudiger be a big loss to Chelsea?

Rudiger has started 20 of Chelsea's 21 Premier League games to date, highlighting how highly Tuchel rates his first-choice centre-back.

And it's easy to understand why when taking a closer look at his underlying numbers.

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As per WhoScored, Rudiger has won 2.1 aerial duels, made 2.4 clearances and 4.5 long balls per league game throughout 2021/22, placing him in the top five amongst his teammates for each metric.