‘Ziyech gets piquant option to leave Chelsea in winter’

Hakim Ziyech (28) gets another option to leave Chelsea this winter break. Indeed, the attacking midfielder cum striker is in the interest of José Mourinho’s AS Roma. That is the coach who won the Europa League with Manchester United a few years ago at the expense of Ajax with Ziyech.

So possibly the Morocco international will team up with Mourinho this time, as Italian Tuttosport writes that Ziyech is high on the Romans’ shadow list. Tottenham Hotspur are currently making a serious attempt to secure the arrival of AS Roma’s Nicoló Zaniolo, in which case Ziyech would be in the picture to replace him. Besides the Chelsea playmaker, Gerard Deulofeu (Udinese) is also among the contenders.

Ziyech seemed to be at a dead end at Chelsea for a long time, as he played little before the transfer window and players came to The Blues for several hundred million euros in January. But in recent weeks, he was suddenly reinstated by coach Graham Potter and gave the winning assist against Crystal Palace. That allowed him to play 90 minutes against Liverpool this weekend, but could not make the difference (0-0).

Reviews Ziyech

Nevertheless, he suddenly received rave reviews from the English media for his game against Liverpool: Sky Sports and The Sun, for instance, gave the former Ajax player a seven, while The Evening Standard even came up with an eight, because of, among other things, his ‘excellent game-reserves’. ‘Ziyech wants to fight for his place, when everyone had thought he would leave Chelsea,’ wrote the latter medium. Incidentally, with Noni Madueke, one of his new rivals was not yet eligible to play on Saturday.