Roberto Di Matteo has revealed his attempts to sign Timo Werner, explaining why he is excited to see him in a Blues shirt.

The Germany international is billed to move to Stamford Bridge in July after Chelsea paid £47.5million RB Leipzig for the striker.

Di Matteo, who lifted the Champions League for Chelsea as a manager and won silverware in west London as a manager, stated he tried to sign the striker twice himself as a manager.

According to the Blues legend, it was later in his coaching career that he first spotted the huge potential of Werner in Germany.

The Italian stated that: “When I was at Schalke he was at Stuttgart and he was just coming on to the scene.”

“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.’

However, the disappointment of twice missing out on the chance to add Werner to his squad, at Schalke and Aston Villa, hasn’t dampened Di Matteo’s enthusiasm for the 24-year-old’s talents.

“I’m a big fan of his and he’s developed really, really well as well,” added the former midfielder.

“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.”