“There was a buzz of interest” – £50m defender speaks openly about potential Chelsea move

Chelsea are still being linked with Nottingham Forest defender Murillo, and today the defender had some quotes come out which very much open the door to a move away from the City Ground.

“We don’t know anything for certain. The window opened last month so I’m going to return to Nottingham Forest for pre-season,” the youngster responded when asked about Chelsea’s interest in quotes picked up by TeamTalk.

“I know there was a buzz of interest. So, I don’t know exactly how much the [asking price] amount is, but I know there was interest. There might be some discussions on whether I’ll stay or not, so there’s a lot of things to happen still, but I’m relaxed.”

The former Corinthians defender is still just 22 but settled into the Premier League with ease last year, attracting attention from top clubs after a solid debut campaign in the top flight. As well as Chelsea, Liverpool are being mentioned regularly in connection with the £50m rated defender.

How rumours can return with a vengeance

The rumours around Murillo have gone pretty quiet in recent weeks, so we’re not getting too excited just yet. But there certainly seemed to be some legit interest, and we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see things spark up again later in the window.

A couple of things would likely have to happen for us to actually get serious on this front this summer though: firstly at least one defender would have to leave. That looks most likely to be Trevoh Chalobah, but anything is possible.

Then secondly, we’d have to miss out on Riccardo Calafiori, who is quite clearly our first choice defender who might be available. If Chalobah goes and Calafiori is off the table, we expect the embers of this Murillo interest to be very much reignited.