Chelsea transfer news with the latest Blues headlines and rumours including a fresh football.london perspective on Kylian Mbappe
Silly season has well and truly begun. The turn of the year marks the opening of the January window and recent big hitters Chelsea are almost certain to be in and among the chatter throughout the month.
Just 12 months ago, they embarked upon a record smashing four weeks that saw them sign eight new players for over £300million combined including the record British transfer at the time. This time round they have more focused business that needs attending to.
One of the areas that many expect the Blues to push for is a new striker and January 1 marks the opening of what is likely to be a small and crowded window that clubs can sign Kylian Mbappe. The Paris Saint-Germain forward refused to sign an extension with the Parisiens over the summer and looked set to leave after being taken out of plans during pre-season.
The Frenchman now has less than six months to run on his deal and will be available to walk away for free come the end of the season. Although PSG have reportedly tried to blank out the chance of that being to Real Madrid there are not likely to be a shortage of offers on the table.
Chelsea, who had Mbappe on a trial briefly in the early 2010s, may well be one of those clubs. Here, football.london discusses the optics of a deal and just whether it makes sense.
Chances to sign players like Mbappe without the monumental transfer fee attached do not come around very often. Scratch that, they do not come around ever. This is unprecedented.
Do Chelsea need Mbappe? Everyone needs Mbappe. He’s not the high-pressing forward Pochettino demands but he is a difference maker and the sort of player that can be accounted for. The Blues have a hard-working squad being formed and could feasibly cover for his play out of possession.
On the ball and Mbappe is unsurprisingly a total game-changer, a match winner and someone that brings the cutting edge. Give him Christopher Nkunku to play off and Conor Gallagher to hide behind when defending and this is a fierce team. It’s fanciful and realistically never going to happen, but what if?
Mbappe wouldn’t join a team that isn’t in the Champions League, though, and Chelsea are a long way from that. Daydream over.
The world of strikers is hotly contested at the top level now and there’s a handful of teams, Arsenal included, that are after one in 2024. Be it January or in the summer – or in January for the summer – Chelsea are on the lookout.
Having followed Victor Osimhen closely for much of the past two years, the club were debating a possible bid this month football.london understands, the chance to sign him is not yet off the table. Although the 24-year-old has now signed a new deal at Napoli, it hasn’t ended the talk of him leaving in the near future.
Reports state that Chelsea are considering an offer now that would see him come at the end of the season, much like the transfer that saw Nkunku move from RB Leipzig to Stamford Bridge over the summer. Although this is just one of the possible options with regards to Osimhen it is certainly one that favours Chelsea.
football.london says: Although a striker of top quality in January could see Chelsea rise up the table quiclky – they are creating the chances week on week to suggest that better finishing is the difference between being tenth and challenging for the top six at least – it isn’t something that needs to be rushed.
Osimhen is no longer going to come over the winter, this much is clear, but the question begs, is it worth signing someone who is not a top target just to get business done at this stage of the season? If Osimhen is the guy and everyone is in agreement – and they may well be because he is undoubted class – then why take second choice?
Agreeing a deal now is far from easy, especially as Osimhen will be after Champions League assurances like Mbappe, but it isn’t impossible. He has a tie to Chelsea with the Didier Drogba factor and could possibly be convinced to take the risk of joining when outside the top four/five with the goal of pushing onto better things. This feels unlikely too but starting things off now is better than reacting in a bad way and taking second rate options instead.
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