Folarin Balogun says he only wanted to join AS Monaco despite having attracted interest from Chelsea.
According to Sky Sports, the Blues held tentative talks with intermediaries over a potential deal for Folarin Balogun, but nothing came from that in the end.
The striker has since joined Monaco in a £35m transfer and has been speaking about his move on Offside With Taylor Twellman.
On his switch from Arsenal to the French club, Balogun said: “In the end when Monaco were interested it was, really, an easy decision for me. I told my agent: ‘This is the only place I wanted to go.’ And luckily for me, he made it happen. I feel like, for me, it was important to obviously go to a side that’s competing to win stuff.
“They’re a really big team in the French league. And at the same time I want to play games. I want to be able to prove myself, and prove to people around that I’m capable of playing and being the main striker for a team.”
With Chelsea not signing Balogun, their only centre-forward arrival during the summer was Nicolas Jackson.
Chelsea needed someone more proven than Folarin Balogun
Chelsea not bringing Balogun to Stamford Bridge is hardly a catastrophe.
The 22-year-old did impress last season, scoring 21 goals in 37 Ligue 1 outings during his loan spell at Reims. Considering that, it is easy to see why Monaco were so eager to bring him back to France.
As for Chelsea, they already have two young strikers in Jackson and Armando Broja. Ultimately, if Mauricio Pochettino was going to sign another No.9, he probably needed to recruit someone with a bit more pedigree and experience than Balogun, someone who would not have been as much of a gamble.
Finding the back of the net has been a major issue for Chelsea, with the Blues managing to score just 38 goals in the Premier League last season, so they definitely could have done with the arrival of another striker at Stamford Bridge. Balogun, though, may have been too much of a risk.
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