The club just agreed a fee for one of Europe’s best young talents
Some teams use the transfer window to proclaim ambition – exciting fans with transfer speculation linking them with the best players around, only to dither about for a month and end up with, well, no one of note.
Ignoring who we could possibly be talking about here, that example was only to highlight that there are also clubs who do things a little differently in the transfer window. These clubs, amazingly, actually just go out and buy the players they need.
Chelsea, this summer, are one such club. Frank Lampard’s team finished fourth in the Premier League last season, sealing Champions League qualification in the process; no small feat given the fact they’d just come off a summer in which they weren’t allowed to sign any players.
They’re making up for lost time though, and have already signed Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech. They expect to complete the signing of Leicester City full-back Ben Chilwell soon, as well as the free transfer of free agent Thiago Silva.
According to multiple reports, Bayer Leverkusen have agreed a fee of €80m from Chelsea for Kai Havertz pic.twitter.com/Icj0jzudTf
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) August 24, 2020
Now it has been reported by the reliable Fabrizio Romano that they have finally agreed a fee for Bayer Leverkusen forward Kai Havertz.
The 21-year-old has been a revelation in the Bundesliga over the past two seasons, scoring a combined 29 goals since the start of the 2018/19 season, and Chelsea have gone and got him.
Chelsea are reportedly paying the entire fee up front, rather than spread across a four-century-long payment plan, and have got their man as a result.
This means they now boast the attacking talents of himself, Werner, Ziyech, Olivier Giroud, Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount.
The signing of Silva will likely help shore up a defence which was leaky last season, as will the acquisition of England international Chilwell.
All in all, this is not something which should be spectacular but is put into greater focus by some of their rivals’ sloth-like approach to bringing in much-needed reinforcements.
Will it be enough to elevate them to the level of Liverpool? Perhaps not. But Chelsea know what they need, and they have gone out and got it.
