Chelsea have backed out of the race to sign Nottingham Forest ace Brennan Johnson after learning he wants to join Tottenham Hotspur.
Brennan Johnson wants to join Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea have seemingly given up hope as a result.
That is according to The Times, who claim that Chelsea have now ended their interest in signing Johnson.
The Guardian reported last week that Chelsea had initiated discussions to try and sign the Forest star.
It was suggested that Chelsea were trying to engineer a potential part-exchange move for Johnson as they seek to add a wide man.
However, it’s now claimed that Chelsea have completely ‘withdrawn their interest’ after learning Johnson wants to join Tottenham.
The Welsh international is understood to prefer Tottenham and even if Chelsea strike a deal with Forest, Johnson would still want Spurs.
Chelsea have seemingly ruled that they would be wasting their time with a move for Johnson and are moving on to other targets.
Tottenham will surely have big plans for Brennan Johnson
It’s suggested that Forest are now resigned to the likelihood of losing Johnson with Tottenham moving in.
Spurs would like to do a cash-plus-player deal for Johnson in order to try and bring Forest’s demands down a little.
One thing seems certain – Tottenham must be lining up a big role for Johnson if he does arrive.
Tottenham will surely have spoken to Johnson’s representatives to gauge his interest in a move to North London.
For Johnson – praised as ‘special’ by Glenn Murray – to be so convinced by a move to Tottenham, they must have been offering a big role.
Dejan Kulusevski currently plays on the right flank but Johnson offers something very different with his burst of pace.
Johnson is more similar to Liel Abada, who featured down the right flank for Postecoglou at Celtic and that change of pace could be vital to the Spurs attack.
Chelsea backing away from the race means this is pretty much Tottenham’s deal to lose – but time is running out for an agreement to be reached.
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