Chelsea is pursuing an experienced Bayern Munich defender to bolster their backline.
Despite the incredibly high player turnover under the current ownership group, there is always clamour for Chelsea to make more signings. When you look at the current makeup of the first team squad, you can understand why.
Although the club have made such a high volume of signings over the past four years, there are holes in a number of areas in the squad. One particular position of need has been in central defence.
As a result, the club has been linked with upcoming names, such as Rennes defender Jeremy Jacquet or Yisa Alao of Sheffield Wednesday. There will no doubt be more young names mentioned at some point, too.
However, the club have also been linked with a central defender of much more experience. Indeed, as reports out of Germany are suggesting that Chelsea are again showing an interest in Bayern Munich's Kim Min-jae.
This is not the first time the South Korean's name has popped up - he was also mentioned last summer, as the above report mentions. They suggest that the club have a shortlist, and Kim's name appears on it.
The 29-year-old has one of the more interesting stories in football. He only made his first steps into European football at 24, when he signed for Fenerbahce. One year later, he moved to the top five leagues when he joined Napoli, playing a crucial part in their first league title win since Diego Maradona was at the club.
After 12 months in Naples, he joined Bayern Munich ahead of the 23/24 season. After a positive beginning to life in Southern Germany, things have not gone as smoothly since.
Kim's first six months at Bayern were pretty good, but a long slog of a mid-season Asia Cup hugely affected his form in the second half of the season. For the 24/25 season, his form began to dip, and he found himself on the bench and/or injured towards the end of the campaign.
Then, this season, he has found himself as the third-choice defender, behind Dayot Upamecano and Jonathan Tah. With Vincent Kompany keen to rotate, he has racked up 20 appearances in all comps, but only the equivalent of 10.6 full games. The defender was sent off for two yellows last time out against USG in midweek.
Nevertheless, he is a very talented defender who would add some needed experience and know-how at the back for Chelsea. Sure, there is Tosin - only one year his junior - but Kim has proven himself at the top level more so. In terms of an experienced and high-level defender, the 29-year-old would certainly be the club's best bet.
Having Levi Colwill learning from the South Korean next season, on his return from an ACL injury, would be pretty interesting to see play out.
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