Chelsea’s quickfire start to the summer transfer window looks to have hit a premature halt. After signing Liam Delap within days of the earlier June 1 opening, it has been slower progress since.
A decision was made not to bow down to the demands of Jadon Sancho, who failed to agree a new contract with the club on fresh terms after his loan. The attacker will return to Manchester United on much bigger wages than Chelsea were prepared to offer him in a reduced squad player role.
That is two of the big calls of the summer made with question marks remaining over a possible second striker arrival, the goalkeeping conundrum, reinforcement at centre-back, and a right-footed left-winger. Despite moving in the right direction, it seems as though nothing extra will get over the line before the Club World Cup starts.
Chelsea have until 7pm on Tuesday, June 10 to complete transfers ahead of the group stage in America. In fact, FIFA amended the usual transfer window rules to allow for this mini period of business so that teams could make changes to their squad after the end of the normal season.
However, to comply with their own regulations, the window cannot be open for longer than 16 weeks in a row. That means shutting it briefly so that the real September 1 deadline can remain.
For Chelsea, this also meant a trolley dash to get players in before the Club World Cup started, hence the strength of their push for Delap. Given just how much the Club World Cup changes the complexion of the entire summer – not allowing for a full or proper pre-season, and leaving possibly just four weeks from the final until the Premier League starts again – it is understandable that the recruitment team were keen to act.
When talks were initiated with Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Gittens, after months of consideration, it all looked as though Chelsea would be one of the busiest sides out there. It has not managed to move quite as smoothly in the final week, though.
A gap in valuation remains between Chelsea and Dortmund over Gittens. The 20-year-old is seen as being worth over £45million by the German side whereas Chelsea have only offered around £30million so far.
Although all parties would benefit from a transfer before the Club World Cup, which Dortmund are also competing in, there is no rush to force things through. After all, the transfer window will re-open on June 16 (the day of Chelsea’s first Club World Cup match, in Atlanta against Los Angeles FC) with a second registration window.
That means that Chelsea can tie up transfers in the next week or so and have time to spare before the deadline for making amendments to their Club World Cup squad. An initial 50-man group can be named with that being reduced down to 35 players for the group stage.
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Extra players can then be added before the last-16 with a window between June 27 and July 3. That effectively allows Chelsea another two weeks to negotiate with Dortmund over Gittens, if they want him to have any part under Enzo Maresca in USA.
The same goes for goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Chelsea have been in talks with Milan over a move for the 29-year-old goalkeeper but things haven’t cleared the final hurdle.
Milan are pushing to get as much money as possible for their No.1 but Chelsea are aware that his contract expires in 12 months – so he can sign a pre-agreement for free in six months – and that he now wants to leave. With the clubs at loggerheads, any chance of finding a middle ground before the deadline is now looking increasingly unlikely.
Chelsea have aimed to keep the price down for Maignan as they sought a bargain deal of just £13million but Milan are after more than £25million. That doesn’t mean that a transfer is off the cards. It simply means that Chelsea will have to continue their discussions into mid-June instead.
If an agreement is found then Maignan, like Gittens, could still play later in the tournament if Chelsea get through the group stage as expected. For now, there is £70million of potential summer transfers on the table. Chelsea will hope to get both done sooner rather than later with the total figure reduced as well. First, they are going to have to wait.
