Hello and welcome to the Chelsea news podcast with me your host jack and in todays episode we will be talking about potential transfers coming into the club and ranking them in what should be a slightly longer form of my usual content. I will be looking over, in depth, several players who have been linked with joining the club this summer and will be reviewing them all in one. Please bear in mind that this is just about incoming players, and that potential outgoings may even become a video of its own.
First up we have the first signing of Chelsea’s new era at the club in Raheem Sterling.
Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling has been confirmed as a Chelsea player. He has moved to the club for a fee of around 40 million pounds on a 5 year deal with the option of a 6th year to be added on by the club should he perform well. Sterling has been consistently one of Manchester City’s best players over his time at the club and has flourished under current manager Pep Guardiola under whom he has come to the very precipice of world football and has shone in both a Manchester City shirt and has also become somewhat of a talisman for his nation, England.
He comes into the team and is realistically expected to start this season, being more than likely the best player in the squad on current ability as the squad is still very young, possibly with the single exception of Chelseas midfield machine that is N’Golo Kante. Something that is seemingly overlooked in this signing however is the commercial standpoint. This is the first signing of our new owner Todd Boehly and he, if the American owners around us in the premier league are anything to go off, will be looking to be signing big name players in order to maximse the amount of revenue the club can make commercially. Sterling is a big name player, known outside of England and its surrounding areas. As of late, we truly haven’t had this type of player, perhaps even since the departure of our former Belgian hero Eden Hazard leaving for Real Madrid.
And whilst he may not quite be to that astronomical level of stardom, Sterling could help, with of course Cristian Pulisic, to maximise the brand’s exposure inside America. This may seem slightly boring and irrelevant, but in modern day football, and with big name and big money transfers such as this, points like this are a major factor in transfers nowadays.
Raheem Sterling joins the club as the teams new highest earner after Romelu Lukaku leaves the club famously on his loan back to previous club Inter Milan. His wages exceed that of N’Golo Kante and have been somewhat of a talking point in regards to this transfer as with one year left of his contract at Manchester City, and beginning to enter his prime as a player at the ripe age of 27, people have been speculating, and reportedly, Manchester City didn’t want to let the player go and were set to even offer him wages that were greater than those from Chelsea Football Club for him to stay in Manchester this summer.
This is truly a testament to him wanting to join Chelsea this summer and his desire for more playing time instead of being a rotation option, which truly shows his desire and will to develop and become one of the greatest players in not only the premier league as he currently is, but the whole world instead.
Honestly, I believe that Chelsea have pulled off an amazing signing this summer, and I think that he could be our talisman to lead the club forward.
Next up we have Kalidou Koulibaly who is joining the club as the second transfer this window and is completing his medical now in the pre season camp in Los Angeles. Koulibaly is an amazing signing for the team and has consistently been one of the best defenders in world football for an extended period of time, which is testament to how good he is and the longevity that he has performed for. I believe that Koulibaly comes in as a sort of Rudiger replacement in my eyes. Not only this but from my point of view I believe that he is a more capable defender than the likes of Rudiger, with the only potential downside of Koulibaly that has been talked about as somewhat of a stumbling block is the lack of his forward passing and him being a very defensive player of sorts. I believe that regardless of how he plays and what he has done his defensive numbers are amazing, he has among the best stats in Europe for about 5 years I believe and he is held in the same level of prestige on the continent as the likes of Virgil Van Dijk and other elite defenders. Chelsea put in a 33 million pound bid which was accepted by the club but this could rise to as high as 40 million pounds should all of the add ons be triggered. He has signed a 4 year contract with the blues and brings with him experience and quality after his time playing in the Italian leagues which are famous for their high level of defending as well as captaining Senegal to a World Cup qualification and AFCON winners medal. He should be nothing but a sensible signing for the blues and will be a leader in the dressing room at Chelsea.
Next on the list we have AC Milan’s Theo Hernandez. Hernandez has been outstanding at AC Milan and has truly emerged as one of the finest young left backs on the planet. He would be a more than capable cover for Ben Chilwell and I truly believe that he could be such a player to push for a starting place should he stay. The main issue is that he may view his position in the team as secondary due to Ben Chilwell, even though that may not be true, with Chelsea in need of two starting left backs in order to compensate for the tremendous load placed upon football players due to fixture congestion. Hernandez may even see sharing a spot with Ben Chilwell a step down from the San Siro, as he is currently battling for a Serie A title against his neighbours Inter, where he is playing regular week in week out football.
After him and another defensive player who Chelsea have been linked with is Sevilla’s Jules Kounde. Kounde is one of the best young defenders in world football and a player who has reportedly signed a contract with Chelsea all the way back to last summer and is very keen to join the blues this summer should reports be believed. He would arrive for a fee in the region of around 55 million pounds and current manager Thomas touched is said to be a big fan of the young frenchman and would be keen on his arrival this summer. For some reason, despite personal terms being agreed with the player for such a long time no fee has been agreed, possibly due to the sanctions that were put onto the club earlier this year before the Todd Boehly takeover.
Straight after Jules Kounde is another player that is linked with moving to stamford bridge this summer in current Juventus defender Mattias De Ligt. De Ligt has been a superb young player over the past couple of years after helping Ajax to a champions league semi final as captain all but 4 years ago before moving to join Juventus in a 75 million pound move. He has done well at the club, and is now set to be looking for other challenges abroad with Chelsea one of the two horses moving to sign the dutchman this summer. Thomas Tuchel is said to be extremely keen on the players signature and he could be a player not just for now for the manager, but one for the future looking forward as well, which is something that the new owners in Todd Boehly and the Clearlake consortium are reportedly interested in giving Thomas Tuchel.
Another player I wanted to talk about and one that I believe that I haven’t mentioned so far on this channel is current PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe who Thomas Tuchel is looking to take from his previous club and has worked with before to great success. He is said to want to play on the left side of the defence and is an amazing defender who has performed spectacularly as of late at PSG. He could be one of Chelsea’s new centre backs in order to fill the void that has been left by the departures of Rudiger and Christensen as Chelsea look to reportedly buy 3 new centre backs this summer.
Anyway thanks for listening to this slightly different episode of the Chelsea News Podcast with me your host Jack and in todays episode we talked about a variety of different topics and if you enjoyed this new style then leave a like and subscribe. Thanks, bye!
