Chelsea faces a blow for Franck Kessie as the players desire to remain at Barcelona
Chelsea would have to continue their pursuit of a midfielder after their prospects of signing Franck Kessie faded following his apparent decision to stay at Barcelona this winter.
With SPORT stating (h/t Football.London) that the player will stay at Barcelona until the end of the season, any possibility of him joining a Premier League team now seem dead.
While the player and Barcelona will make their decision on his future after the 2022–23 campaign, Barcelona offered the 26-year-old to Inter Milan in a swap deal to bring in Croatian international Marcelo Brozovic.
A central midfielder should be prioritised by the club given the situation that engulfs us right now, with important figure N’Golo Kante spending half of the season sidelined with injury. Jorginho, who is also in his 30s, isn’t having the same impact from midfield as he did before.
With Italy international and Mateo Kovacic being out of form, this has made Chelsea’s centre midfield appear less involved in the game and affected the club’s performance in matches.
They have previously been linked with Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister of Brighton & Hove Albion, but as the saga continues, they are now back on the market for Enzo Fernandez of Benfica.
And in their 0-0 draw with Liverpool, Lewis Hall joined Jorginho in central midfield after the injury to Kovacic, which is now a concern as the club doesn’t have enough defensive midfielders. Hall is talented by no means is he ready to be a regular PL starter.
Kessie has only started two games for Barcelona, whom he joined from AC Milan after becoming a free agent, and the Spanish giants were open to selling the player. Tottenham Hotspur apparently made an offer of £13 million for the Ivory Coast international.
The club needs to bolster the centre area of midfield and have now failed to sign defensive midfield once again but the Blues are pushing for Caicedo’s signing as they have been handed an incentive to increase their offer after getting their first bid of £55million rejected by Brighton & Hove Albion.
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And if we managed to pull this off, then it would be a great acquisition given Caicedo has already played under Graham Potter and wouldn’t take long to get used to Chelsea’s playing style. Kessie, however, would have been a more financially suitable option.
But if money isn’t a barrier, which it seemingly hasn’t been for us in the last two transfer windows, then one of Caicedo or Fernandez wouldn’t be shabby business at all.