5 players who rejected a transfer to Chelsea

#2 Virgil Van Dijk

Van Dijk rejected Chelsea because he felt that the Blues' short term approach would hinder his development.

The Dutchman had been embroiled in a lengthy transfer saga at his previous club Southampton, where his performances first caught the eye of scouts from clubs across Europe. He looked rock solid at the heart of the Southampton defense and his consistent performances drew the attention of heavyweights like Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

Southampton were unwilling to part with their prized asset and in due course, the situation became rather ugly, with Southampton accusing Liverpool of making unwarranted advances towards Van Dijk and rejecting transfer requests handed in by the Dutchman.

While Chelsea were always an outlier contender to sign him, in the end they did everything that they could to land him, however, he did not accept Chelsea's advances and deliberately chose to ignore them and focus on transferring to Liverpool instead. His transfer request was also submitted with the intention of joining Liverpool, and not Chelsea.

Chelsea were willing to pay the lofty transfer fee that Southampton demanded and tried to bring him to the Bridge on generous contract terms as well, carefully outlining the project that was being worked on and emphasizing the prominent role that they had envisioned for him in the future. They were willing to provide a regular starting spot and responsibility to Van Dijk as well, however, there is only so much that a club can do to convince a player to sign with them.

In the end, Van Dijk rejected Chelsea and chose to play for Liverpool instead. Antonio Conte revealed that another reason why Chelsea could not sign Van Dijk was that Liverpool were armed with finances from the sale of Coutinho to Barcelona and the fact that they were able to pay £75 million, which is a world record for a defender, proved too much for Chelsea.

In the end, Van Dijk revealed that he felt that he would develop better at Liverpool over Chelsea, who he feels have a short term mentality. According to Van Dijk, Chelsea are prone to frequent management and player changes, as their focus is on immediate returns and not long term development.

The fact that former Chelsea players like Lukaku, Salah and De Bruyne, who were sold despite proving their potential and then developed into phenomenons further cemented this image. While Chelsea could certainly do with a general like Virgil Van Dijk in the heart of their defense, it had become clearly evident that no deal would materialize simple because Van Dijk had decided against signing for the Blues and opted to ply his trade in Mersyside instead.