Latest: Romano says Chelsea in “direct contact” in “recent hours” for €65m winger who could sign very soon | OneFootball

The focus this week for Chelsea fans has mainly been on the exciting events in the USA at the Club World Cup.

After a damaging defeat in their second group game, the Blues roared back to beat ES Tunis 3-0 on Tuesday night, setting up a game against Benfica in the second round on Saturday night.

Chelsea step up Gittens chase with “direct contact” today

Fabrizio Romano’s Tweet about Jamie Gittens and Chelsea’s latest bid.

But while the action gets more intense on the other side of the Atlantic, there’s still important work being done back at Cobham and in back offices all over the world. Chelsea’s need for a new winger is clearly dominating their thinking right now, and it sounds like the chase for Jamie Gittens is only growing more intense.

Fabrizio Romano has just Tweeted out that Chelsea and Gittens’ club Borussia Dortmund “have been in direct contact again in recent hours” to talk about the move.

“The agreement is getting closer as talks continue in the US,” the transfer insider wrote.

Gittens deal feels close from being done

We really expect this deal to be done soon – perhaps even before the end of the tournament. Gittens was left out of Dortmund’s final group game with a suspicious sounding “illness”, meaning he’s featured in just one game of 3 so far.

They’re clearly thinking of a future without him, and a deal with us for his transfer appears to be hurtling closer.

It won’t come soon enough to help Enzo Maresca’s squad try to win this thing, but if it’s not done soon we’d be very surprised. The latest updates from Florian Plettenberg said that the price would be around €65m, which is pretty steep for a player who has shown glimpses of talent but is not yet the finished product.