Leicester reject Chelsea’s £70m Wesley Fofana bid as ThomasTuchel says players think No 9 shirt is cursed

Chelsea have made a £70 million bid for Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana, according to reports.

The 21-year-old French centre-back has impressed at the King Power Stadium and the club and manager Brendan Rodgers do not want to sell the player.

It is reported that Leicester would only consider a bid of at least £85m, which is what it took Manchester United to land Harry Maguire in 2019.

Fabrizio Romano said that Chelsea are ‘determined to try again’ after the bid was turned down by Fofana’s club, and states that the player is keen to make the move.

Chelsea lost Andreas Christensen to Barcelona and Antonio Rudiger to Real Madrid this summer as the duo came to the end of their contracts at Stamford Bridge, and have signed Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli.

The need for another central defender has been brought into focus after Levi Colwill joined Brighton and Hove Albion on loan for the season after the arrival of left-back Marc Cucurella.

While Cesar Azpilicueta has signed fresh terms on a new two-year deal at Stamford Bridge, Marcos Alonso could yet leave Chelsea for Barcelona.

Romano reports that a fee of under 10 million euros will be enough for Barcelona to land the Spanish defender.

Another player that could soon arrive at Stamford Bridge is former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

The 33-year-old Gabonese international was managed by Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel at Borussia Dortmund, and could potentially be available as Barcelona restructure their squad under manager Xavi Hernandez.

However, Tuchel has admitted that the currently free No. 9 shirt might not be given to Aubameyang – or anyone – because it is regarded as cursed by players.

Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao, Álvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuaín and Romelu Lukaku have all failed to impress while wearing the number in recent seasons whilst even further back it was once the property of Khalid Boulahrouz.

Tuchel said: “It’s cursed, it’s cursed, people tell me it’s cursed.

“It’s not the case that we leave it open for tactical reasons, for some players in the pipeline that come in and naturally take it. There was not a big demand for No 9. Players sometimes want to change numbers but, surprisingly, nobody wants to touch it. Everybody who is longer than me in the club tells me: ‘Ah, you know, like he had the 9 and he did not score and he had the 9 and did also not score.’ So we now we have a moment where nobody wants to touch the No 9.”