Atalanta rejects Chelsea offer for Franck Kessie, pulls him from the transfer market
By George Perry
The rumours linking Chelsea to Atalanta midfielder Franck Kessie have been some of the most persistent this January. As often happens between Chelsea and Serie A teams, Atalanta may have taken him off the market.
Stop me if you have heard this one before. Chelsea are linked with a highly-rated Serie A player. Other top drawer clubs in Europe also pursue this transfer. The player’s club sets a price. Chelsea offers the price. The club withdraws the player from the market with no small amount of indignation.
As went Kalidou Koulibaly, so it appears Franck Kessie will not become Chelsea’s marquee January signing. Atalanta rejected £21 million offers from Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain for Kessie. The sixth-place Serie A club believes that they will be able to get an additional £4 million for Kessie if they hold out until the summer.
This is one of the stranger and flimsier rationales for rejecting a transfer offer. Transfer fees tend to be inflated in the January window. If a club is purchasing a player mid-season they likely have a severe deficiency, either due to form or injury. They have little leverage to offer, and much to lose if they do not execute a deal.
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On the supply side, clubs are understandably loathe to break up their squad mid-season. If a player is good enough to attract offers, he is not the kind of player the club will give up lightly.
Supply and demand curves aside, Atalanta apparently think that Franck Kessie will improve a noticeable but relatively small amount. Kessie is tied for the club lead in goals (six), but otherwise has no eye-popping statistics. At 20 years old in his first top-tier season he has far more potential than realized talent.
More than anything else, Chelsea are probably dealing with another club that embraces the long-held Serie A tradition of toying with the Blues / embarrassing Michael Emenalo. Aurelio de Laurentiis elevated this to an art form with the Kalidou Koulibaly episode. AS Roma also led Chelsea on regarding Radja Nainggolan, Kostas Manolas and Antonio Rudiger.
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Franck Kessie is one of the few transfer targets who would be of real value to the Blues and who could plausibly arrive in January. However, his raw talent does not justify playing along with the bait-and-switch. Chelsea can, should and will do quite well this second-half without him.