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Armando Broja happy at Chelsea despite AC Milan interest - Fabrizio Romano
Armando Broja is “super happy” at Chelsea and with manager Graham Potter amid interest from AC Milan, according to Fabrizio Romano.
The Albanian international has become a regular part of the Blues first team since the former Brighton boss took over from Thomas Tuchel, and scored his first goal for them against Wolves (8 October), before making his first start at Brentford (19 October).
The reigning Italian champions have liked the 21-year-old for a long time and have him on their list of targets when they look to address their ageing striker corps in the summer, but according to Romano there have been no concrete negotiations over a move.
Speaking on his YouTube channel on Monday (23 October, 2min 50sec) Romano said: “What I can tell is that the only intermediary of Armando Broja is Louis Bell. He had a meeting with the AC Milan board.
“He knows and they know that Armando Broja is a player who could be really interesting for AC Milan. Why? Because they have Olivier Giroud, Divock Origi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic who is now injured, but next summer Milan will go for a striker and Armando Broja is one of the players they’ve been following for a long time.
“But there is an important point. He signed a new deal with Chelsea in September, it’s a long-term deal, six years. He’s super happy with Chelsea and with Potter. He loves the club, so at the moment Broja is only focused on Chelsea, there are absolutely no negotiations.
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“We will see in the future but as of now still nothing concrete.”
Non-starter
Had Broja been sitting on the bench at this point under Tuchel then a move in the summer would be a likelihood, as the youngster has made clear he wants to play and came close to leaving before the season.
But having been convinced to stay and sign a new deal he has been vindicated in that choice with the faith shown in him by Potter.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has proven to be a decent signing so far, but he is not the guaranteed starter that £97.5million Romelu Lukaku was supposed to be last year, and at 33 is not going to be around for too long.
And with nobody else in the picture to challenge for considerable game time at striker since Timo Werner went back to RB Leipzig, Broja now has a clear opportunity to push for a starting role.
That could feasibly happen this season, but he will certainly want to have established himself by the time the summer transfer window comes around as it is unlikely that Chelsea will sit still in the market, and there remains the question of what happens with Lukaku then.
Kai Havertz is proving to be maddeningly inconsistent, so while Broja drew a blank in the 0-0 at Brentford, he has broken his duck, and it was him to won the penalty against Manchester United on Saturday (22 October) which should have won the game, proving he is having an impact.
He has therefore put himself in a good position to become the main man before too long, so at this stage a move to Milan seems out of the question.