The Hard Tackle brings to you an assimilation of all the news involving the Premier League club Chelsea today.
Chelsea saw their club record breaking winning run getting snapped at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur last week. As the Blues set about building the momentum in the title race yet again, here’s a roundup of everything happening in and around Stamford Bridge today.
Let’s start with the matters of something the club has been accused of splashing ever since Roman Abramovich assumed ownership of the West London outfit – money. The cost of Jose Mourinho’s sacking in 2015 and Adidas deal cancellation have been revealed.
ESPN have reported that Chelsea had to pay Jose Mourinho and his staff £8.3 million when he was sacked in 2015, which is around a third of what the West London club had to pay out when he left the club for the first time in 2007.
This was revealed in the club’s accounts which showed that it wasn’t just on the field where their performances suffered, as despite a record turnover of £329.1m and a £49m profit on player transfers, Chelsea still managed to post a loss of £70.6m.
A big contributing factor for that was that Chelsea also had to pay current kit supplier Adidas a £67 million compensation for cancelling their 10-year deal six years early, so that they could sign their new deal with American giants Nike.
The bad news, unfortunately, doesn’t stop there as Chelsea reportedly seem to have lost out to Bayern Munich in their pursuit of the Niklas Sule, with the highly rated defender set to join the Bavarians in a €20 million deal.
Hoffenheim have surprised one and all with their Top 4 charge in the Bundesliga this season, and they remain one of only two clubs in Europe that are still undefeated this season and Sule, who has risen through the ranks at the club, has impressed at the heart of the side’s defence, making waves and taking the Bundesliga by storm.
Recent reports indicated that Chelsea and Bayern Munich were involved in a two-way tussle for the highly rated centre-back, but now it looks like the German champions have won in that tussle, with Sule poised to make a move to the Allianz Stadium soon.
Moving on, and new signing Michy Batshuayi has been attracting interest from several clubs, and there’s a new one monitoring the Belgian’s situation with Paris Saint-Germain is reportedly interested in signing Batshuayi.
The reports claim that Unai Emery is a big fan of the Belgian forward’s talents and was also interested in making a move for him before his £32 million summer move to Chelsea. Emery proposed the move for Batshuayi a few weeks ago and it looks like the PSG director of football Patrick Kluivert contracted Chelsea over Batshuayi’s move this week.
Batshuayi is said to have grown frustrated with playing a bit-part role and is seeking more playing time, but Chelsea will only send the Belgium international out on loan, as they rate the youngster very highly and identify them in their future plans.
From one youngster to another and Andreas Christensen’s father has issued an ultimatum to Chelsea, saying that his son will only return to Stamford Bridge if he becomes a regular in Antonio Conte’s plans.
Andreas Christensen has been highly impressive out on loan at Borussia Monchengladbach, making 58 appearances for the German club having established himself as a regular starter at the heart of the team’s defence.
And his father Sten Christensen is adamant that Chelsea’s transfer window activity will go a long way in determining the young Andreas’ future with the West London club. Indeed, with Chelsea seemingly losing out in their chase for Niklas Sule, it might be in their best interests to give Christensen a run in the first team and provide him with a chance to impress.
Finally, some positives for those who follow Chelsea’s youth setup and Antonio Conte has said that the club may keep hold of Charly Musonda in the January transfer window despite interest from some other clubs to sign the youngster on loan.
Musonda spent the first half of the season on loan at Spanish club Real Betis, and upon his return to Stamford Bridge Conte has revealed that he might give the 20-year-old forward some opportunities with the first team over the course of the remainder of the season.
“Charly is a good prospect,” Conte said at his pre-match press conference. “Musonda has the quality to become a great player. And for this reason, I think can be a good opportunity for him, but also for me, for the club. To work for five months with him. If he shows me this month he deserves to play, he’ll go into the team.”
With Conte also recalling young defender Nathan Ake back from his impressive loan spell at Bournemouth, it looks the Blues might finally be turning a corner when it comes to their outlook towards playing their youth players.
