Chelsea’s injury list is continuing to grow and it could mean the club are even busier than expected in the January transfer window with three signings made already.
Graham Potter said after the defeat to Manchester City that Chelsea’s current injury crisis is like nothing he has experienced in football.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it and I’d ideally not want to experience it here,” Potter told reporters post-match. “But it is what it is, I have to just carry on.”
Raheem Sterling limped off for Chelsea in their 1-0 defeat to Man City inside the opening minutes with a hamstring injury. He was quickly joined by his teammate Christian Pulisic who was challenged by John Stones and was also forced off.
Sterling and Pulisic – two of Chelsea’s front three on the night – are the latest to join the ever-growing list of casualties on the sidelines for the Blues. Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Armando Broja, Wesley Fofana, Edouard Mendy, N’Golo Kante and Mason Mount are all currently out injured for Chelsea.
‘Injury crisis’ is perhaps a term that is overused but in this case, it really is. Chelsea are missing 10 first-team players and very important ones at that. It may well force the Blues to conduct some business this month that they hadn’t perhaps envisaged going into the transfer window.
The big deal that everyone is talking about is Enzo Fernandez. Chelsea have been in talks with Benfica since the back end of last month about a deal that would exceed £100million. However, the structure of the fee has proven to be the big issue for Chelsea.
The Blues would rather pay the money in three separate instalments but Benfica clearly are not on the same page. It remains up in the air at the moment and there is no clear indication whether the deal will happen or not.
With James out, Chelsea do have their eyes on a few right-backs who could play deputy to the England international in the long-term. football.london understands Celtic defender Josip Juranovic is certainly an option for the west Londoners but there is nothing beyond interest at the time of writing.
Sergino Dest and Denzel Dumfries remain on the radar at Chelsea, but there are complications with both. Dest is currently on loan at AC Milan from Barcelona meaning any deal in January could prove complicated for the Blues. Meanwhile, Dumfries’ stock continues to rise and he will know if he did make the move, the reality is he would be second choice to James when he is available.
Tino Livramento, formerly of Chelsea of course, is also an option, but not until the summer. Chelsea have a buy-back clause inserted into the Southampton defender’s contract that becomes active at the end of the season. Livramento suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage in April and has not played since.
With Sterling and Pulisic both set to be sidelined now through respective injuries, Chelsea could be forced to go out and buy an attacker. One name that refuses to go away is Mykhaylo Mudryk of Shakhtar Donetsk.
Chelsea are very interested in signing the 22-year-old forward but so are Arsenal. And football.london has been told the Gunners are currently leading the way for Mudryk’s signature, with the Ukrainian seemingly having his heart set on a switch to north London.
There are other attacking players on the radar. Joao Felix is someone Chelsea do have an interest in with the Atletico Madrid forward being watched on numerous occasions this season by club scouts.
However, Chelsea are sceptical about paying over the odds for Felix, who was bought by Atleti for way over £100million in the summer of 2019. Felix wants out of the Madrid-based club but it would likely be a loan move if any.
There is still way over three weeks remaining of the January transfer window, so there’s plenty of times for deals to be done. Knowing Chelsea, especially under Todd Boehly, there will be multiple targets popping up who may not even have been spoken about yet.
source: https://www.football.london/
