‘Real shame’ – Christopher Nkunku on transfer hunt again just months after Chelsea exit

Christopher Nkunku is back on the transfer hunt again just months after leaving Chelsea for Serie A giants AC Milan.

The French forward put pen to paper on a five-year contract in a £36million switch to the Rossoneri back in August.

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Nkunku was limited to just 11 league starts during his two seasons at Chelsea due to injury following his 2023 arrival from RB Leipzig.

The Blues were happy to sanction Nkunku’s exit as they invested heavily in their front line, signing Liam Delap, Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Alejandro Garnacho.

The 28-year-old is set to be on the move again in the new year as uncertainty grows over the player’s future in Italy.

Nkunku has struggled for consistency under Max Allegri this season, with only five of his 11 league outings coming from the outset as he finds himself behind Rafael Leao, Santiago Gimenez and Christian Pulisic in the pecking order.

Additionally, the summer arrival is yet to score a league goal for AC Milan, who are also closing in on the loan of German forward Niclas Fullkrug from West Ham.

Reports suggest that internal discussions over his role and future at San Siro are intensifying ahead of the January transfer window.

And European football expert Andy Brassell believes it is ‘a real shame’ that Nkunku’s move to Chelsea and then AC Milan hasn’t worked out.

“It’s a real shame. I think you can take it all back to when he arrived at Chelsea with an injury, really,” Brassell told talkSPORT.com.

“I think most players, or many players, arriving in the Premier League, you need that first six months to get to the pace of it, to get to the physicality of it.

“You can say the Bundesliga is frenetic, but physically it’s not quite on the same level as the Premier League.

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“So that was always going to be a bit of a leap for him. But it was also going to be a bit of a leap in the fact that at Leipzig he was the main piece and everything revolved around him.”

Brassell continued: “That first season was a complete write-off and from there it was a real struggle for him to get regular game time.

“I think you can see from past examples in the Premier League, like
Radamel Falcao, the Premier League is possibly one of the most difficult places to get your form back if you’re out of form and you’re out of fitness.

“Especially if you’ve not played in it before. It’s really, really difficult.”

Brassell believes that Nkunku needs a loan move in order to gain regular game time for AC Milan to ‘get some of their money back’ on their gamble on the forward.

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“They can’t afford to lose everything they spent on Nkunku, even though obviously Chelsea took a significant loss on him to move him on, which says a lot about what they thought about his future,” Brassell continued.

“But really, I don’t think it’s just restricted to Serie A in terms of who could loan him. I do wonder if a Bundesliga club would benefit from loaning him. We know he’s done a great job in the Bundesliga before.”

And with the World Cup on the horizon, Brassell now believes it is ‘too late’ for Nkunku to force his way into Didier Deschamps’ plans, adding: “Too late for the 2026 World Cup? Almost certainly.

“But at this point, he’s 28 and the clock’s ticking. He has to get to a place where he can play and prove his best.”

Nkunku was part of the France squad for November’s World Cup qualification meetings with Ukraine and Azerbaijan, while the AC Milan star featured in both games, starting the 3-1 win over the latter last month.