It has been pretty common knowledge since January that Chelsea are in the market for a left winger. Ever since Mykhailo Mudryk was provisionally suspended from football, the Blues have been scouring their options.
There was interest shown in Alejandro Garnacho and Mathys Tel over the January transfer window, but the west Londoners decided against it. Jamie Gittens was also an option in the mid-season window and Chelsea put the feelers out to his camp, though it was in regard to a summer move, football.london understands.
Now, fast forward almost five months, and the Blues are looking to sign Gittens before the FIFA Club World Cup begins in mid-June. This will allow Pedro Neto and Noni Madueke to be used solely on the right wing – a position Enzo Maresca feels both excel in.
Theoretically, it will be a three-way shootout for the left wing spot between Jadon Sancho, who Chelsea are interested in taking on a permanent basis, Tyrique George, the promising teenager who has shone in his breakthrough season at Stamford Bridge, and Gittens. Should the latter of the three sign, of course.
With that said, football.london takes a look at how Gittens’ numbers compare to Sancho’s this season. Given it is George’s first campaign in the senior side, we felt as it would be unfair to include him. There is also of course the caveat of Gittens and Sancho playing in very different leagues.
Neither winger scored a tremendous amount of goals, but Gittens trumps Sancho in this category. In 48 appearances in all competitions for Dortmund, the 20-year-old has scored 12 goals. In 41 games for the Blues, Sancho has netted on five occasions. Although Sancho has only started 26 games in total, while Gittens has been named in the starting XI 32 times.
In total, Gittens has been on the pitch for 2791 minutes, while Sancho was playing for 2419. The former averages a goal every 232 minutes – a much better number than Sancho, who usually scores every 483 minutes on average.
Sancho, though, does lead Gittens when it comes to assists. Gittens has only recorded five assists this season, while Sancho is double that with 10. Sancho needs to do more in the final third, though. Maresca actually called on Sancho to “shoot much more” back in April.
“In terms of our wingers, we arrive [in dangerous attacking positions] many, many times,” the Chelsea head coach explained. “Then it is up to them if they want to cross, go one v one, or if they want to shoot. Probably, Jadon could shoot much more. That is something we have [asked] many times.
“Hopefully, he is going to shoot more from now on. For us, it’s important to arrive there, with Jadon, Noni, with Pedro, with Tyrique. And from there, to create chances.”
There is no question that there has been an improvement from Sancho in the last couple of months. A couple of assists against Legia Warsaw in the away leg was then added to with a beautiful goal against Ipswich Town three days later. Then he got an assist in the home leg against Warsaw before scoring against Djurgarden away from home.
Sancho then scored the third goal in the Conference League final against Real Betis last week to put the match beyond any doubt for the Blues in Wroclaw, undoubtedly his best moment in Chelsea blue thus far.
Learn more
