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As per Catalan outlet El Nacional, Chelsea forward Timo Werner would prefer to join league rivals Manchester United instead of Barcelona. However, The Blues may not want to sell to a direct Premier League rival.
Werner joined Chelsea from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2020 after an impressive 2019-20 campaign. However, the German forward has failed to impress for the West Londoners in the last 18 months. Despite being one of Chelsea’s top scorers since his arrival, a return of 15 goals and 16 assists in 64 appearances is far from the returns expected of him.
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It is believed that The Blues might not be opposed to the idea of selling the 25-year-old, who is a on the radar of both Barcelona and Manchester United.
The interest from Barcelona is concrete, considering the striker-related troubles Xavi Hernandez has had to endure since his arrival. Sergio Aguero has been ruled out due to a heart condition, leaving Martin Braithwaite and Luuk de Jong as the only other alternatives at the club.
El Nacional has reported that Werner favours joining Manchester United as he bids to reunite with Ralf Rangnick at Old Trafford. Chelsea, though, do not wish to strengthen a direct rival, which gives Barcelona the advantage in the race to snap up the German.
The Blaugrana have reportedly contacted Chelsea over a move in January. They hope to sign Werner on an initial loan deal with a view to securing a permanent deal in the summer.
As far as their rivals are concerned, news is yet to come out of Manchester United regarding a move for the German.
They had adaptation issues - Former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard on bringing German stars to Stamford Bridge
While Kai Havertz and Timo Werner currently play for Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel, both German stars were brought in by Frank Lampard.
The former manager has noted that both players struggled to adapt to Premier League football, during an interview with Gary Neville:
“With Timo (Werner) and Kai (Havertz), there were clearly going to be adaptation issues. I know that from being in it because they were shocked at the speed of training; they were shocked by the physical demands of the game,” Lampard said.
“Pretty much any player goes through those periods. Timo and Kai had that in the early days, Kai had terrible COVID as well, which set him back quite a lot."
