{"id":577009,"date":"2021-01-03T01:30:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T06:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=577009"},"modified":"2021-01-02T20:49:24","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T01:49:24","slug":"chelsea-targeting-mohamed-simakan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/03\/chelsea-targeting-mohamed-simakan\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Chelsea Targeting Talented Young Defender Mohamed Simakan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/premier-league\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea<\/a> already signed <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/4315f30d\/Malang-Sarr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Malang Sarr<\/a> last summer as one for the future, they look to be going after another promising Ligue 1 centre-back: <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/fcb27134\/Mohamed-Simakan\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mohamed Simakan<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/tag\/strasbourg\/\" target=\"_self\">Strasbourg<\/a>. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football.london\/chelsea-fc\/transfer-news\/chelsea-transfer-rumours-mohamed-simakan-19552752\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">football.london<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lequipe.fr\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">L&#8217;Equipe<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/tag\/football-transfer-news\/\" target=\"_self\">transfer<\/a> talks have already begun.<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea Targeting Talented Youngster Mohamed Simakan<\/h2>\n<h3>Another Young French Defender for Chelsea<\/h3>\n<p>The French connection seems to be working well for Chelsea at the moment. The Blues signed Sarr in the summer and loaned him out for the season, but that&#8217;s not all.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/ce4246f5\/Kurt-Zouma\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kurt Zouma<\/a>, who has established himself as a starter this season, signed in a very similar manner. A youngster at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/tag\/saint-etienne\/\" target=\"_self\">Saint-Ettiene<\/a>, he had potential but no superstar-calibre potential and Chelsea took a chance on him.<\/p>\n<p>His career started excellently under Jose Mourinho before a long-term ACL injury derailed his development. Now, after two seasons on loan, he&#8217;s back and better than ever.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/268df6b1\/Frank-Lampard\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frank Lampard<\/a> would hope for Simakan to have a similar impact to Zouma&#8217;s, but first, they must weigh all the options. If they feel he&#8217;s worth it, then they should do whatever it takes to get him on board.<\/p>\n<h3>Simakan Would Feel Right at Home<\/h3>\n<p>Zouma isn&#8217;t the only Frenchman at Stamford Bridge who could help Simakan adjust quickly. <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/b9fbae28\/NGolo-Kante\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">N&#8217;Golo Kante<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/16ceb862\/Olivier-Giroud\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Olivier Giroud<\/a> are still key figures in the dressing room, as well as on the pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, captain <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/53cad200\/Cesar-Azpilicueta\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cesar Azpilicueta<\/a> comes from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/tag\/olympique-de-marseille\/\" target=\"_self\">Olympique Marseille<\/a>, so he speaks French, as does recent free transfer <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/86e7deaf\/Thiago-Silva\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Thiago Silva<\/a>. Silva and Azpilicueta are the two biggest leaders in the team, and they certainly could take the youngster under their wing if he does sign.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea have <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1345492036791771137\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">competition<\/a> from AC Milan to get his signing done, and he&#8217;s unlikely to make any headlines in the next month. However, his long-term future could well be at Stamford Bridge, as they will no doubt be monitoring his progress.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"gYTMt2SHSFp0iyuX-N2qcg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1161835308\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'gYTMt2SHSFp0iyuX-N2qcg',sig:'3L0b-Z44wqaA6kxEwfe8nnTGNJzqpu3ZuG8crQeFxXA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1161835308',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Chelsea already signed Malang Sarr last summer as one for the future, they look to be going after another promising Ligue 1 centre-back: Mohamed Simakan of Strasbourg. According to football.london and L&#8217;Equipe, transfer talks have already begun. Chelsea Targeting Talented Youngster Mohamed Simakan Another Young French Defender for Chelsea The French connection seems to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3607,"featured_media":577022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,7,30,3,7188,28],"tags":[46,1407,1297,7375,7275,4340,136],"class_list":["post-577009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-ligue-1","category-news","category-premier-league","category-rumours","category-transfers","tag-chelsea","tag-chelsea-transfers","tag-football-transfer-news","tag-mohamed-simakan","tag-premier-league-news","tag-strasbourg","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}