Rennes head coach Habib Beye has urged the club to reject all offers from Chelsea for Jeremy Jacquet this January.
The Blues are keen to bolster their defensive options before the transfer deadline and have identified Jacquet as their primary goal having scouted the 20-year-old for various months.
Jacquet, having fun with only his second full season of skilled football, is widely regarded to be amongst essentially the most promising young centre-backs in France and was heavily linked with Arsenal last summer.
Nevertheless, Chelsea have since emerged because the clear frontrunners to secure a deal for Jacquet and widespread reports over the weekend claimed the Club World Cup winners had agreed personal terms with the defender.
While Jacquet is alleged to be desperate to push through a move to Stamford Bridge, Rennes’ asking price – regarded as within the region of £56million – is currently proving a stumbling block in transfer negotiations.
It’s understood there may be a reluctance inside Chelsea’s hierarchy to shell out in excess of £50m for the France Under-21 international – but this might change if Rennes refuse to budge on their valuation.
It stays to be seen if Jacquet has played his final match for Rennes, with the centre-half forced to miss the side’s 1-1 draw with Le Havre through suspension.
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Asked for an update on Jacquet’s situation after Sunday’s Ligue 1 contest, Rennes boss Beye told reporters: ‘I imagine that today he’s a vital player for our objectives.
‘If tomorrow we were to let him go, we’d should lower our expectations.
‘When you’ve got offers from such a club, it might probably make things a bit hesitant.
‘I’m very firm on this example. He’s a necessary player for us.’
While Beye called on Rennes to ‘resist’ all proposals for Jacquet, he was unable to rule out the chance that the young Frenchman could possibly be on the move.
‘He’s among the best players in our team and so we now have to withstand that approach,’ the ex-Newcastle and Aston Villa full-back added.
‘There are several aspects I don’t control in all of this. We’ll see what happens in the approaching days.’
In response to Beye, it could be ‘helpful’ for everybody involved – including Chelsea – that Jacquet stays put to proceed his development with Rennes.
‘The ability I even have is to confer with him and tell him what I feel of him at Stade Rennais, what I feel of his development,’ he went on.
‘I do know where he desires to go in his profession. I feel that today, I’m contributing, we’re all contributing as a staff to assist him progress, to the purpose where he’s now being targeted by his best clubs.
‘In five months, he’ll be much more completed, and so, [if he stays] it might probably be helpful for everybody, for the club, for Jeremy, and for the club that may come in search of him.’
Jacquet’s current contract with Rennes runs through to June 2029.
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Facing the media ahead of Chelsea’s win over Brentford, Liam Rosenior stressed that the club would only turn to the transfer market if the ‘right player’ is on the market this month.
‘I feel if we do, it must be the best player. We should be patient,’ the newly appointed Chelsea boss said.
‘I need to evaluate this group. It’s really, really vital to me. I like to provide the players I work with a likelihood to point out good surprises.
‘We still have time. We have now conversations every single day, myself and the board, about potential transfers, each in and out.
‘But at the identical time, I would like to concentrate on the players within the constructing.
‘If I feel it’s the best time or the best player, then we’ll make that call.’
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