Transfer News: Chelsea star Marcos Alonso in advanced transfer talks with Barcelona
According to popular Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Spanish giants Barcelona are said to be in advanced talks with Chelsea left-back Marcos Alonso with the Spaniard said to be keen on a return to his home country.
The 31-year-old joined the Blues in 2016 and has since then had a mixed career at Stamford Bridge, consisting of many highs and many lows. This season though, especially in the absence of Ben Chilwell, Alonso has stepped up and put in largely consistent performances.
The former Real Madrid youth product has played 45 times for Thomas Tuchel’s team this season, scoring four goals and assisting six during this period. Such numbers are impressive for a defender and Alonso sometimes does not get the credit that he deserves.
Romano claims that after six seasons at Chelsea, the player wants to return to his home country with La Liga behemoths Barcelona said to be interested in the left-back. It would appear that a deal is drawing close to completion.
Doesn’t affect us much?
Alonso has been a great utility player for us, stepping in when required and performing an admirable job. However, in our current situation, losing him might not affect us much, considering he is at best a back-up left back.
Chilwell, although deterred by injury this season is our first-choice left full-back and at just 25, he will continue to dominate the position for years to come. If Alonso stays, he will have had to be content with a back-up role next season.
Alonso is 31 and slowly yet surely he is approaching the twilight years of his career. His contract is expiring next summer and it makes sense for us to cash in on a player whose value will only diminish with time.
Selling him will however make it essential that we bring in a replacement in the summer. Procuring an able backup is a must and ideally signing a younger player who can play understudy to Ben Chilwell makes sense.
Alonso is not the only player who could be leaving from our defense this season. Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger will move on whilst our talismanic captain Cesar Azpilicueta is also said to be reconsidering his future.
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A huge transfer window awaits Chelsea and the club need to make sure that they are able to bring in able replacements to make sure the quality of the squad does not drop. Alonso might leave, but we have bigger departures to worry about. It remains to be seen how we go about the summer revamp.