Chelsea, along with the rest of most global football, are off indefinitely, so let’s do some transfer talk instead. If there’s one thing that can survive a global pandemic, it’s transfer rumors.
With that in mind, let’s take a spin through the Chelsea related rumor mill, starting with the Jadon Sancho. Manchester United have been strongly linked with the former Man City and current Borussia Dortmund forward over the years.
According to the Daily Star, United are in pole position to land the English international and that they believe paying £120 million for him would be a good piece of transfer business.
According to the Irish version of the Daily Mirror, United have carved out a spot for Sancho on the right wing, by casting off the dead and showing a tendency to give the kids more chances for playing time.
Reportedly, it’s why Sancho would prefer a move to Old Trafford instead of Chelsea, claims Metro. That’s only natural, of course the English international would prefer a place where he would have a better chance at regular first team football.
Moving on to another English player who is wanted by both United and Chelsea, and that’s West Ham United’s Declan Rice. The Blues reportedly have an advantage because Rice is from the area and joined Chelsea’s academy at age seven.
At age 14 though he was cut loose, and then found his way to the Hammers. Naturally, he has a lot to prove to those who didn’t believe in him at Stamford Bridge, and that’s an advantage in recruiting for the southwestern London club.
Finally, Chelsea will no doubt be in business to upgrade the attacking midfield. And going back to our friends at Football.London, here is one specific target, a young prodigy, who is on their radar, Espanyol’s Nico Melamed.
“According to Gianluca di Marzio, Chelsea have entered the race to sign Melamed alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, all of which have followed the 18-year-old closely. Melamed has an €8 million release clause in his contract and di Marzio reports that Chelsea are willing to pay it.”
This is of course not a move to be made with an eye on immediate improvement, but for down the line. Chelsea will also look to find a replacement for Kepa in between the sticks, but we’ll cover in another future post.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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