Why Dortmund signing Sule seriously complicates Chelsea's summer plans

Updated: 7 Feb 2022 15:53 GMT
7 min read

Thomas Tuchel, Wolves v Chelsea, 2021-22 — © ProShots

It may only be early February but Borussia Dortmund have already pulled off one of the biggest moves of the summer transfer window.

On Monday the Bundesliga side confirmed that they had reached an agreement to sign Bayern Munich defender Niklas Sule.

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The Germany international’s contract at the Bavarian club was set to expire at the end of the season.

And despite being heavily linked with a move to Chelsea and Barcelona, Sule has instead opted for a move to Dortmund, where he will sign a four-year deal with the German giants.

But while this may be good news for Dortmund, it’s bad news for their London rivals due to the manner in which this deal now complicated their summer plans.

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How this complicates Chelsea’s summer

Of course, the biggest issue here is that Sule has for some time now been a transfer target for Chelsea and a player that the Premier League giants may have looked to sign if they were in need of another central defender.

Unfortunately for Thomas Tuchel and his backroom staff, that is exactly what is likely to happen at the end of the season.

As things currently stand, both Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger have yet to sign extensions to their contracts and could both leave for free this summer.

If that ends up being the case, Sule was reportedly earmarked as a potential replacement to either central defender. Which is now no longer the case.

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Furthermore, Sule’s decision could have a second drastic impact on Chelsea’s summer dealings.

According to BILD, Bayern have now turned their attention to Christensen as a potential summer signing and as a likely replacement to Sule.

As such, Chelsea are not only losing out on a potential signing due to Dortmund early business, but could also lose one of their current central defenders, if the Danish talent opts for a move to Munich instead.