Chelsea thunder towards Xavi Simons transfer as Fabrizio Romano confirms double advanced talks

Chelsea are making big progress towards winning the race for Xavi Simons after Fabrizio Romano revealed the latest on their negotiations for the RB Leipzig attacking midfielder.

The race for Simons’ signature recently sparked into life once it became clear the Netherlands international was keen to explore his options away from the Bundesliga. Several Premier League teams have shown interest in the playmaker, but Chelsea have been making the most serious attempt to add him to their ranks.

TEAMtalk revealed towards the start of June that Chelsea had reached out to Simons’ representatives and were ready to make a formal approach to his employers at Leipzig.

The situation has escalated considerably since then, with Chelsea now pushing to complete the signing of the 22-year-old.

And according to Romano, in an update on his X account, Chelsea are ‘now in advanced talks’ with Leipzig for Simons, with negotiations going in the ‘right direction’.

Furthermore, Chelsea have held positive and advanced discussions with Simons on personal terms.

Providing more detail on his YouTube channel, Romano explained: “There are contacts ongoing. The relationship between the clubs is also very good in this case. They already did the Nkunku deal together and more, so they have a very good relationship.

“They are having two separate discussions. One is for Carney Chukwuemeka, the other one is for Xavi Simons. But Chelsea and Leipzig are negotiating and also the negotiation between Chelsea and Xavi Simons on the contract is going quite well.

“I think they can agree every detail of personal terms very soon and I still expect Xavi Simons to have very good chances to join Chelsea in this summer transfer window.”

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Simons lines up for Leipzig

Despite the advancing talks about his future, Simons has been named in Leipzig’s starting lineup for their pre-season friendly against Toulouse on Saturday afternoon.

As explained by Sky Sports Deutschland reporter Philipp Hinze, Leipzig ‘demand a total package of €70m (including add-ons)’.

That means Chelsea will need to pay up to £61.2m ($82.2m) if they want to snare Simons, who would become their most expensive signing of what has already been a high-spending summer.

Chelsea are yet to make their official bid for Simons, despite the progress they’ve been making in talks behind the scenes.

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The stats where Simons stood out last season