Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta has refused to be drawn on his future at the club amid significant interest from Barcelona.
Before Chelsea were put up for sale, the Blues were trying to convince Azpilicueta to stay but were giving him the freedom to decide his future, even postponing triggering a one-year extension clause in his current deal to avoid keeping him against his will.
However, with new owners set to take over in the near future, it remains to be seen what decision will be made.
In the background, Barcelona have been trying to convince Azpilicueta to make the move to Camp Nou and were quietly confident of getting a deal done before the Blues were thrown into turmoil.
Now with the Spain national team, Azpilicueta was bluntly asked whether he'll be a Chelsea player or a Barcelona player next season, but the right-back shut the question down.
"This is not the time or place to talk about the future," he said. "If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the pandemic and with Chelsea’s current situation it’s that we have to live the day to day, live the moment. Now is the time to focus on the selection."
He continued: "At Chelsea we are living in a time of great uncertainty, but the players and the coaching staff can only do one thing, which is to prepare as best as possible for the matches.
"In fact, after the sale of the club was announced, we achieved good results. The rest is not in our hands."
Currently, Chelsea are not permitted to buy or sell any new players, but they would be free to trigger Azpilicueta's extension as it was already agreed before the sanctions imposed on owner Roman Abramovich.
Barcelona are also close to finalising a deal to sign Chelsea team-mate Andreas Christensen, but several of the parties interesting in buying the Blues have voiced their intention to try and keep Antonio Rudiger.
Source : 90min