Thomas Tuchel won Chelsea a Champions League title last season,
but the higher-ups at Stamford Bridge aren’t willing to purchase the
striker he covets.
If it were up to Thomas Tuchel then Erling Haaland would be
moving from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea this summer.
Unfortunately for the Champions League-winning manager, the
higher-ups at Stamford Bridge are unwilling to spend the cash
required to acquire the prolific striker this summer.
Per The Evening Standard, Dortmund are willing to part with
Haaland this summer but only for a transfer fee of £150 million.
Chelsea would prefer to wait an additional season to try to add the
20-year-old striker. That’s when a £75 million release clause in
Haaland’s contract will be activated.
There’s no guarantee Chelsea
would be the player’s first choice, but it’s evidently a risk the Blues
are willing to take.
Instead of spending almost the entirety of their transfer budget on
Haaland, the Blues instead want to focus on keeping one of their
most important current players happy. A portion of those funds will
be directed towards offering N’Golo Kante a new contract that will
keep him at Chelsea for the remainder of his prime. Declan Rice
also continues to be prominently linked with the Blues in the event
that West Ham entertain the idea of letting him leave.
Is passing on Haaland now a mistake by
Chelsea?
Tuchel doesn’t seem poised to kick up a fuss over the club’s lack
of backing, but it could sow some discontent that will manifest
later. Even so, it’s reasonable for Chelsea to balk at the idea of
paying £150 million for any single player given the current state of
finances in European football.
he mistake here by Chelsea is not engaging Dortmund in actual
negotiations on the Haaland front.
Conventional wisdom believes
the Bundesliga club are willing to let Jadon Sancho move to
Manchester United this summer, but will not let their prolific striker
leave during the same window.
At the very least, Chelsea need to make a sizeable bid to see if they
can change the German club’s opinion. That could allow the Blues
to capture arguably the most exciting striker prospect in all of
football.
It would also have the added benefit of complicating United’s
negotiations on the Sancho front. Chelsea officials shouldn’t pass
up the chance to make life more difficult for their English rivals.
In the end, the odds still favor Haaland playing one more season in
Germany before moving on to more lucrative pastures next
season. Chelsea’s unwillingness to pay Dortmund’s asking price
now makes it very possible they will lose out on him altogether.
That’s a tough pill to swallow for Tuchel and Chelsea fans.
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