Chelsea handed major blow in pursuit of Karim Benzema after latest Al-Ittihad claim

Karim Benzema agents confirm the striker is happy at Al-Ittihad amid Chelsea links

According to Metro, Chelsea will have to look elsewhere for their short-term centre-forward fix after Karim Benzema’s agent made it clear that the former striker will remain at Al-Ittihad.

The 36-year-old was pondering returning to Europe after claiming to be unhappy at the Saudi Pro League club. Since joining the Middle East club, No. 9 has scored 14 goals in 19 league matches.

Chelsea was one of the teams mulling a bid for the striker after rumours of his departure from the club emerged. However, as he is expected to remain in Saudi Arabia, the West Londoners would need to find a temporary replacement for the striker elsewhere.

The Blues are left with only Armando Broja as the only centre-forward option after Nicolas Jackson joined Senegal for AFCON while Christopher Nkunku recovers from a hip injury.

A recent report confirms the Blues are ready to sell an Albanian striker for £50 million to make some revenue as they search for a new striker next summer.

However, for the second half of the season, the club wanted to sign a striker on loan to address their goalscoring woes and listed Roberto Firmino, Jhon Duran, and Benzema. Since the French forward is off the list, the club still has two options.

But Firmino and Duran aren’t the best options. Firmino has Premier League experience, but he isn’t consistent, and that is the last thing we want. While Duran is young and we cannot sign another youngster, the club needs a seasoned striker who we can rely on. Benzema was a good option, but it seems like we will have to look somewhere else.

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Our alternatives for centre forward are quite limited, and it is unlikely that the team will sell Broja straight away because we need to buy a new player before we can decide on the Albanian striker’s future. We’ll have to rely on Broja for the time being as we don’t know when Nkunku will return.