Wantaway Courtois stays in Belgium
Courtois was sent on loan to Atletico shortly after joining Chelsea. Real, who have been chasing Courtois for some time, have made a £35million offer and have been in talks with Chelsea transfer supremo Marina Granovskaia. Chelsea felt that offer was too low, even though he has only one year of his contract left. Courtois’ agent Christophe Henrotay this week called for the club to let him go, but Sarri said he wanted face-to-face talks first.
Courtois, though, is still in Belgium and at the weekend was a guest at his first club KRC Genk.
It is not the first time he has gone missing to force a move. He did it at Genk in 2011 before his £9m move to Chelsea.
His Belgian team-mate Eden Hazard has, though, been told he will not be leaving in this window, despite Real’s interest in him.
Butland is a long-time Chelsea target and talks have now begun over a possible £30m deal but Stoke are concerned about having time to find a replacement.
Chelsea will tonight have talks with Lyon over a possible £55m bid for forward Nabil Fekir.
Willian, for whom Chelsea rejected a £6m bid from Barcelona last month, is staying put. Willian said: “I told the manager I’m really happy at Chelsea. I never talk about leaving the club. The only club I knew that made an official offer for me was Barcelona. I intend to continue unless the club wants to sell me.”