According to the Daily Star, Chelsea are lining up a January raid on French giants Paris Saint-Germain for out-of-favour German international playmaker Julian Draxler.
The 26-year-old, who joined PSG from Wolfsburg in his homeland back in January 2017, still has a contract at the Parc des Princes until the summer of 2021 but his lack of regular involvement continues to fuel speculations over his future.
Chelsea are expected to be in the market for some significant reinforcements during the mid-season trading period, having had their transfer ban reduced following a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier in the month. As per the report, Chelsea are keen to flex their muscles in the January window and Frank Lampard has identified certain areas of the squad which are in need of reinvestment. With club-owner Roman Abramovich handing Lampard a £150 million transfer kitty to bolster his squad in January (h/t Daily Mail), Chelsea have been linked with several top-quality attackers like Jadon Sancho, Timo Werner, Leon Bailey and Wilfried Zaha, and now Julian Draxler has also joined the shortlist of potential targets.
Draxler, who shot to prominence with Schalke in Germany, went on to register an impressive tally of 30 goals and 29 assists in 170 appearances for his boyhood club, and also had a brief stint at Wolfsburg before moving across the continent to join PSG in 2017.
Despite his limited involvement, the 26-year-old has racked up 20 goals and 26 assists in 127 appearances for PSG with the German set to enter the last 18 months of his contract, a move to the Premier League certainly doesn’t look beyond the realms of possibility.
Meanwhile, Chelsea failed to build on their 2-0 victory over Tottenham as a 2-0 defeat to Southampton on Boxing Day condemned the Blues to another defeat. With Lampard going into the fixture with the same back-three system that worked wonders against Spurs, Chelsea found themselves completely bereft of ideas further up the pitch against a lively and energetic Southampton side struggling for survival in the top-flight.
Indeed, Chelsea’s lack of creativity against a Southampton backline that has one of the worst defensive records in the Premier League this season was simply ridiculous. Willian, who is out of contract in 2020, still finds his future in limbo despite putting in some top-drawer displays for the club in the first half of the season, whilst fellow out-of-contract veteran, Pedro, has slipped way down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge under Lampard. Christian Pulisic (5 goals, 2 assists) and Mason Mount (5 goals, 1 assist) have been the key creative outlets for Chelsea alongside Willian (4 goals, 3 assists) while Tammy Abraham has been the go-to man in front of goal for Lampard.