Chelsea likely “lurking” to try and secure Bayern player on a free next summer

Top German transfer insider Florian Plettenberg has just dropped an interesting update on Bayern Munich defender Dayot Upamecano and his contract standoff with Bayern Munich.

The former RB Leipzig man is coming into the final year of his deal, and has been strongly linked with Liverpool as a replacement for Ibrahima Konate, who is in a similar situation, at Anfield.

Bayern and Upamecano no closer to contract agreement

Florian Plettenberg’s Tweet about Upamecano.

“Upamecano and his agent are not planning to make any concessions to FC Bayern at this stage,” Plettenberg wrote.

“They have presented their figures to Bayern, and it is now up to the club to decide whether they improve the offer again or not,” Plettenberg continued.

“A new long-term contract is on the table, but there is still no agreement regarding salary and commissions/fees. A free transfer in 2026 cannot currently be ruled out.”

“However, Max Eberl is doing everything he can to reach an agreement. Bayern are absolutely determined to extend the contract. But top clubs are lurking — Liverpool among them.”

Chelsea likely to be paying close attention to defender free agent

He doesn’t mention Chelsea there specifically, but we can be sure the Blues will be in the mix. They’re hungry for an elite centre back, they just don’t want to pay the elite transfer fee.

If Upamecano is willing to keep his wages sensible and accept one of the heavily incentive based deals we give out now, he could be a prime target.

Next summer we forsee Trevoh Chalobah and probably one other defender being sold, making room for Upamecano (or another incoming transfer), plus the arrival of Mamadou Sarr, currently on loan with Strasbourg.

Nothing is decided yet, but we’d bet our house on Chelsea being one of those “top clubs” who are “lurking” waiting to see what happens between Bayern and their defender.