Welcome to the summer silly season! Chelsea FC were essentially “champions” of this competition, last time out, as they outspent the rest of the world, by a considerable margin, in the last summer transfer window.
Owner Roman Abramovich greenlighted a sum of about £220 million last summer, as the club made five new signings, and added two more on a free. We are still waiting for another summer spending spree to get started in 2021, so let’s hope that finally gets going now. Here is the latest Blues transfer news.
Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland is the team’s top target, but the Bundesliga powerhouse don’t really have any intention of selling him this summer. Bild claims that Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel is strongly pushing for the club to get an Erling Haaland acquisition over the line. Bild also reports that it will take £150m to obtain the Norwegian, the same sum that was recently reported by 90 Min.
It depends on just how bad Abramovich really wants Haaland, and whether or not he’s willing to wait. They have the means, but that’s still an insane amount of money.
Sticking with the centre forward position, West Ham United are now frontrunners in the race to get Tammy Abraham, according to Football Insider. The 23-year-old Englishman has been strongly linked with a move back home to Aston Villa, but it appears now that the east London team has superseded the Villans.
The £40m valuation seems to be too much for anyone to pay, especially for a guy that has fallen way out of favor, to the point he was left out of the team for the UCL final.
However, he still had a productive season when given the opportunity, and it’s being reported that Chelsea would be willing to do business at £30-£35m in return for the striker.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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