Newcastle United are reportedly now facing competition for Adrien Rabiot from Premier League leaders Chelsea.
Calciomercato have reported that the Blues are now looking at the France international because they are unconvinced by their summer signing Saul Niguez.
Apparently, they are ‘seriously thinking’ of replacing the Spaniard with Rabiot.
Saul has made just five appearances for Chelsea so far, He has played just 47 minutes in the Premier League.
He clearly hasn’t convinced Thomas Tuchel, who now supposedly wants Rabiot.
Rabiot has been heavily linked with Newcastle recently.
The 26-year-old is supposedly on the Magpies’ radar, and would cost around £13 million.
But the player did play down a potential exit from Juventus after France’s 8-0 win over Kazakhstan, stating he was happy where he is.
Calciomercato report that there is now pessimism on Newcastle’s side about the situation.
Rabiot to Newcastle now looks a world away as Chelsea show interest
Following his comments about his immediate future, this is another blow for Newcastle if they really want Rabiot.
It will be very interesting to see if Saul heads back to Atletico Madrid.
His signing did go through extremely late on transfer deadline day in the summer. That raised questions as to whether Chelsea actually wanted/needed him.
If that happens, Rabiot could well be tempted by a move to Chelsea.
It would be extremely difficult for Newcastle to compete, with a team who are looking like they’ll challenge for every competition this season.
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