Radja Nainggolan continues to vex Chelsea’s transfer plans

Chelsea pursued Radja Nainggolan for the entirety of the summer 2016 transfer window. The AS Roma midfielder may now interfere with Chelsea’s planned sale of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United.

The summer of 2016 was the Summer of Radja Nainggolan for many Chelsea transfer watchers. The Blues’ pursuit of the aggressive, tenacious, tattooed, mohawked, smoking Belgian midfielder took on a life of its own. Nainggolan’s showing for Belgium at Euro 2016 combined with his throwback personality boiled the rumours until midnight of September 1.

Chelsea were content to – ahem – “settle” for N’Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso and David Luiz for their summer business. Things worked out for all involved. But the transfer window closed with no small degree of frustration that Chelsea whiffed on many of their top transfer targets and made two out-of-nowhere deadline day signings.

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Radja Nainggolan has not been on Chelsea’s transfer list at all this time around. However, he may still have a significant impact on Chelsea’s transfer dealings and midfield. Reports out of Italy state that Jose Mourinho delayed Manchester United’s signing of Nemanja Matic so the Red Devils could swoop for Nainggolan.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Mourinho contacted Nainggolan’s representatives to court personally his target midfielder. Manchester supposedly offered Roma the same amount for Nainggolan as they offered Chelsea for Matic: £40 million.

Jose Mourinho may have been looking forward to a reunion with Nemanja Matic. But Radja Nainggolan is a far better transfer target than Matic, even with his smoking habits. The most implausible part of Gazzetta’s story is that Nainggola and Matic would transfer for the same amount.

Nainggolan would make Manchester United more dangerous in the Premier League than Nemanja Matic would. The greatest consequence to Chelsea, though, is that they would be stuck with Nemanja Matic. If the United deal falls through, Chelsea will need to find a new destination and will likely have to accept well less than United’s £40 million.

The money is less the issue than carrying Matic on the squad. Chelsea do not need to sell Matic in order to afford their desired transfers. But they have little reason to keep him around, and will have even less once Tiemoue Bakayoko arrives and takes his spot in midfield.

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The worst case scenario is that Chelsea cannot sell Matic at an acceptable price, and as a result keep him in the squad at the expense of a young player. Nathaniel Chalobah and Lewis Baker both should be on the cusp of the first team this season. Their road ahead is difficult enough with Kante, Cesc Fabregas and presumably Bakayoko ahead of them. Nemanja Matic will do what he does best to his young teammates: thoroughly get in the way and muck up progress.

Juventus are the only club to have some reported interest in Nemanja Matic this summer. Antonio Conte may need to call his former colleagues to orchestrate a deal for his Serbian midfielder. Hopefully he will not send Matic a tart text before resolving things.

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If only Radja Nainggolan had signed with Chelsea in last season, this whole process now would be much simpler.