Chelsea made an approach to sign Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall within the January transfer window, based on reports.
Bergvall, who’s currently sidelined after undergoing ankle surgery last month, is in his second season with Spurs after joining in an £8.5 million deal from Swedish side Djurgarden in 2024.
The 20-year-old was named as Tottenham’s Player of the Season last term as he helped the club win the Europa League under Ange Postecoglou.
In line with The Athletic, Chelsea and Aston Villa each made an approach to Spurs over a deal for Bergvall within the January window.
Nonetheless, Spurs are said to have ‘made it clear’ that the Sweden international isn’t on the market.
Villa went on to sign Douglas Luiz for a second time on loan from Juventus, while they’ve the choice to make that deal everlasting for €25m (£23.4m) this summer.
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Chelsea had also made an approach for Douglas Luiz before he returned to Villa.
Speaking this week, Postecoglou crticised Spurs for failing to recruit more experienced Premier League players after his first season in charge.
As an alternative, Spurs opted to sign Dominic Solanke alongside three teenagers in Bergvall, Archie Gray and Wilson Odobert.
‘At the tip of my first 12 months, after we finished fifth, for me, OK, how do you go from fifth to actually difficult? Well, we needed to sign Premier League-leading players,’ Postecoglou said on The Overlap.
‘But ending fifth that 12 months didn’t get us Champions League, we didn’t have the cash. So we ended up signing Dom Solanke… I used to be really keen on him, I actually liked him, then three teenagers.
‘I used to be taking a look at Pedro Neto, [Bryan] Mbeumo and [Antoine] Semenyo on the time, Marc Guehi, because I said we want… if we’re going to go from fifth to there, that’s what the opposite big clubs would do in that moment.
‘And people three teenagers are outstanding young players, sensible young players. I believe they’ll be great players for Tottenham but they’re not going to get you from fifth to fourth.’
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