Thomas Tuchel is walking into Timo Werner Chelsea trap with Matthijs de Ligt negotiations

It feels slightly ironic that in negotiations with Juventus, Todd Boehly is trying to offload Timo Werner in order to sweeten the potential fee for defender Matthijs de Ligt.

Werner, who arrived with much fanfare over two years ago, is one of a litany of players that have underperformed and not met initial expectations. Part of the issue has been the German's limitations, his specific criteria for success, and his need to play on the counter-attack.

He represents one of few players who offer more questions than answers. For Thomas Tuchel, his options are not expanded, they are drastically limited.

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The chase for De Ligt is not that shocking if only because of his name value and £63m move from Ajax in 2019, the Dutch defender is a pretty obvious solution to a defensive issue at Chelsea. And when I say obvious, I do not necessarily mean it makes total sense.

De Ligt's potential fee rising beyond £60m is not great news and even if the option to send Werner the other way frees up space in Chelsea's attack to lure Raheem Sterling and Ousmane Dembele to west London, De Ligt could just replace one issue with a new one.

De Ligt, for all his credit in leadership and for his influence over Erik Ten Hag's youthful Ajax side in that incredible 2019 Champions League run, has not vastly pushed on since in Turin. If anything, outside the Ajax bubble, he has arguably regressed, showing technical and physical flaws which have dampened the initial hype.

This is not to say at 22, De Ligt cannot improve or still develop into one of the world's best, but for the premium you might pay for his services, it feels like a risk you could avoid in a