{"id":614327,"date":"2022-06-27T08:42:47","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T12:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=614327"},"modified":"2022-06-27T08:42:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T12:42:47","slug":"chelsea-consider-rival-defender-nathan-ake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/27\/chelsea-consider-rival-defender-nathan-ake\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Consider Rival Defender If Matthijs de Ligt Unavailable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In his latest report for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.caughtoffside.com\/2022\/06\/27\/exclusive-fabrizio-romano-column-man-united-in-talks-for-four-players-salibas-arsenal-future-and-why-chelsea-could-move-for-man-city-defender\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CaughtOffside<\/a>, Fabrizio Romano expanded on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/26\/chelsea-prepare-new-offer-raheem-sterling\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea&#8217;s<\/a> chase for new defenders. In the piece, Romano reiterates that Juventus&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/05\/17\/juventus-matthijs-de-ligt-new-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Matthijs de Ligt<\/a> is the priority of the club right now and that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/17\/jules-kounde-transfer-decision-chelsea\/\" target=\"_self\">Jules Kounde<\/a> has always been a top target, despite recent inactivity on that deal. What will perk up some eyes is that the London side are considering a move for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/25\/arsenal-manchester-city-gabriel-jesus\/\" target=\"_self\">Manchester City<\/a> defender Nathan Ake if the move for De Ligt cannot be completed, with the Dutch defender close to signing a contract renewal with his Italian club. German boss Thomas Tuchel is reportedly very high on the former Chelsea man.<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea Could Make A Move for Nathan Ake<\/h2>\n<h3>Reunion<\/h3>\n<p>Ake first came to prominence as a member of Chelsea&#8217;s youth academy and was a member of the senior team from 2012 until 2017. Despite impressing on loan spells and showing a useful versatility, the Dutchman was sold to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/24\/joe-rothwell-bournemouth-switch\/\" target=\"_self\">Bournemouth<\/a> in 2017 after making just 17 appearances in his five years in London.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/26\/chelsea-prepare-new-offer-raheem-sterling\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea Ready to Step up Pursuit for Multiple Premier League Winner<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Blues have a penchant for selling promising players only to be linked with big moves for them years later, Thorgan Hazard and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/08\/30\/romelu-lukaku-put-chelsea-over-top\/\" target=\"_self\">Romelu Lukaku<\/a> come to mind as recent examples, with Tammy Abraham potentially joining that fray next summer when his buy-back clause activates.<\/p>\n<h3>Premier League Quality<\/h3>\n<p>While De Ligt is certainly an impressive player there is one advantage that his fellow countryman Ake has, and that is the Manchester City man is a proven commodity at Premier League level.<\/p>\n<p>In three seasons with the Cherries, the 27-year-old made over 100 appearances for the club, even winning the Supporters Player of the Year award in the 2017\/18 season. He was then picked up by Manchester City for a reported \u00a341 million in 2020 where he has been an effective depth option for the club, making 40 appearances in two seasons with the Manchester side.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/06\/24\/chelsea-transfer-budget-new-owners\/\" target=\"_self\">Chelsea Transfer Budget Revealed With Thomas Tuchel Promised Up To Six Summer Signings<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Despite his quality, Ake isn&#8217;t an essential member of the Citizens&#8217; squad and could be available to his former club at a good price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his latest report for CaughtOffside, Fabrizio Romano expanded on Chelsea&#8217;s chase for new defenders. In the piece, Romano reiterates that Juventus&#8217; Matthijs de Ligt is the priority of the club right now and that Jules Kounde has always been a top target, despite recent inactivity on that deal. What will perk up some eyes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":614337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,17,3,7188],"tags":[8611,7483,1226],"class_list":["post-614327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-chelsea-transfer-rumours","tag-manchester-city-transfer-rumours","tag-nathan-ake"],"modified_by":"Dale Ventham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614327","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\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}