Chelsea know Xavi Simons and Alejandro Garnacho deadline in final week of summer transfer window

Alejandro Garnacho continues to be of interest to Chelsea (Image: Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto)

We are in the final eight days of the 2025 summer transfer window and Chelsea are still working on strengthening their attacking line. Talks continue with RB Leipzig and Manchester United for the signings of Xavi Simons and Alejandro Garnacho , respectively.

The Blues initially opened club-to-club talks with Leipzig over a month ago for the signing of Simons, who is understood to be desperate to move to Stamford Bridge. The 22-year-old already has a broad agreement with Chelsea over personal terms and the Netherlands international has been waiting patiently for the two clubs to find some common ground.

Meanwhile, negotiations with United over the signing of Garnacho are advanced . Like Simons, Garnacho has his heart set on a move to SW6 - and even turned down an approach from Bayern Munich earlier this month - and is waiting for the Blues and United to find an agreement on a fee for the 21-year-old winger.

Chelsea have one more game before the transfer deadline next Monday, with west London neighbours Fulham coming to Stamford Bridge on Saturday lunchtime. If the Blues were to have Simons and Garnacho to choose from, both players would need to be registered by 12pm on Friday, as per Premier League rules.

Rule U.23 of the Premier League handbook states : "Subject to the provisions of Rule V.1, the deadline for receipt by the Board of all duly completed documents required by these Rules to effect the registration of a Player shall be 12 noon on the last Working Day before the date of the first League Match in which the Club making the application intends him to play, save that the international transfer certificate and evidence of eligibility to take up employment in the United Kingdom (in both cases if applicable) may be provided thereafter (but must be provided before the Player is eligible to play for a Club in a League Match."

Chelsea got their season properly underway - after being held to a goalless draw with Crystal Palace on the opening weekend of the campaign - on Friday evening with a resounding 5-1 victory against West Ham United at the London Stadium. Lucas Paqueta gave the Hammers an early advantage with a long-range strike beating Robert Sanchez, but the Blues were not behind for long in Stratford.

Joao Pedro 's header levelled the match for Chelsea, before the Brazilian provided a beautiful assist for his teammate Pedro Neto . A fantastic team move produced Chelsea's third goal of the game with Estevao Willian 's cross being turned in by Enzo Fernandez , with the Blues well in control at the half-time break.

In the second-half, Chelsea added two more - both through corners. Moises Caicedo 's rebound in off the crossbar gave the Blues even more breathing space before Trevoh Chalobah 's close-range finish made it a rout in east London.

The Blues should find out the extent of Cole Palmer 's injury in the next few days. The 23-year-old was set to start for Chelsea on Friday night but felt his groin during the warm-up, with Enzo Maresca making the last-minute decision to replace his new No.10 with Estevao.

Maresca said post-match : "Cole in the last four or five days was not 100%. Today he tried the warm-up, but he felt something. So we prefer not to take any risk to get worse. And we'll see in the next hours if it's something important or not.

"And then, for sure, Joao Pedro, Liam, Estevao, Jamie Gittens will be good for sure. They are all fantastic players. You can see that probably Liam and Joao are a little bit more ahead of the rest. But the reason why is because they were already here in England.

"Jamie needs to adapt a little bit, Estevao needs to adapt, Hato needs time to adapt. But overall, we are very happy with the road there."