£21m defender doesn’t want to leave club in January transfer window despite Chelsea interest

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Chelsea are going to find it difficult to sign Bayer Leverkusen defender Jonathan Tah in the January transfer window.

According to Sky Germany, Chelsea are interested in Jonathan Tah and Bayer Leverkusen could sell him in the summer for around €25m (£21.4m).

However, the same outlet has claimed that the 27-year-old does not want to leave the BayArena this winter.

Tah’s desire to remain at Leverkusen until the end of the season makes plenty of sense. The club are flying under Xabi Alonso right now, while the centre-back will also be concentrating on maintaining his form so that he goes to next year’s Euros with Germany, who are hosting the tournament.

You cannot blame him for not wanting to swap that for Chelsea’s chaos.

Will Chelsea sign Jonathan Tah in the summer?

While Chelsea may struggle to lure Tah away from the BayArena in January, it is not impossible that they sign him in the following transfer window.

The Germany international’s contact is up in 2025, so an exit in the summer looks very possible.

Chelsea may also need to sign a new centre-back if Thiago Silva leaves at the end of season when his own deal expires. It could see them push really hard for someone like Tah to replace the Brazilian.

For now, though, it looks like Mauricio Pochettino is going to have to rely on the likes of Silva, Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile.

Chelsea’s defensive record has not been great recently, but the above names are certainly not terrible centre-halves.

As a whole, the Blues have performed really poorly this season. The transfer window is not quite here yet, so climbing the table really needs to be Pochettino’s priority right now.

His side are nowhere near the Champions League places, which is really not good enough after all of the money Chelsea have spent recently.