Chelsea RIDICULED for transfer blunder by club boss: ‘Too bad for them’

Chelsea have been mocked for losing out to Lazio in the race to sign Reda Belahyane.

The Blues spent the final days of the January transfer window scouring the midfielder market to bring in a replacement for Cesare Casadei, Carney Chukwuemeka and Joao Felix.

After briefly considering going for a more experienced option such as Juventus man Douglas Luiz, they decided to stay true to their transfer policy of signing young and ultimately snapped up Saint-Etienne teenager Mathis Amougou.

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Chelsea also explored deals for Man City youngster Nico O’Reilly and Dario Essugo of Sporting CP before spending €15 million on the relatively inexperienced Amougou.

The Blues were also at times linked with breakout Verona star Reda Belahyane. However, they decided not to act on their interest and he was instead snapped up by Lazio for just €9.5m.

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Former Verona president and current advisor Maurizio Setti has now revealed why Chelsea did not get serious about their interest in the 20-year-old and appeared to scoff at their reasoning.

“Chelsea wanted to sign him and we talked about it a lot, but they wanted a ready player and in the end, they didn’t consider him as such. Too bad for them, Lazio was nailed on,” he told La Lazio.

“There were also Marseille and Rennes, plus other important Italian teams that had appeared before, but [Lazio president Claudio] Lotito was the most convinced and fastest,” Setti added.

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Belahyane made 22 appearances for Verona, mostly as a starter, and notched two assists. He is already a senior Morocco international after previously suiting up for France’s U18s.

19-year-old Amougou, by comparison, made 17 appearances for Saint-Etienne, with fewer than half of them being starts. He has also made seven appearances for France’s U19s.