Former Chelsea player and manager Roberto Di Matteo has stated he is a "big fan" of new signing Timo Werner, revealing he's tried to sign the striker twice.
"When I was at Schalke he was at Stuttgart and he was just coming on to the scene,’ Di Matteo told Chelsea's official website.
"During the second part of the season, before I left, I was planning with my sporting director.
"I was saying I wanted to sign this guy, he’s good. He was young, quick, technically good. I said 'can we not sign this boy Timo'.
"We didn’t in the end and then I resigned and so on. Then I went to Villa. Stuttgart, the season after, they got relegated, and so I enquired again to sign him, but then Leipzig signed him on."
Di Matteo, already a legend as a player at Chelsea, managed the side to their Champions League triumph in 2012, and he feels Werner’s goals can take his former side to a new level.
Di Matteo added: "I’m a big fan of his and he’s developed really, really well as well.
"He’s a goal scorer, he scores goals, so he can guarantee a certain amount of goals for the team, which is very good, and he’s very pacey as well, he’s fast."
