Tammy Abraham will sign a new contract with Chelsea before reporting on loan to Swansea City. Forgive jaded Chelsea fans for not thinking this is anything more than a promise ring.
Chelsea and Tammy Abraham will soon ink a new £50,000 per week contract, and then Abraham will be off to play his first Premier League season at Swansea City. The Telegraph did not report the length of the contract. Abraham’s current deal runs through the 2018/19 season, so this contract will likely take him out to 2021.
The loan to Swansea City is ostensibly his last step before Chelsea’s first team. If he continues his performance and development trajectory from Bristol City, he will be ready for the squad if not the starting XI. His new contract supposedly reflects Chelsea’s faith in his upcoming loan season, and their commitment to his future at Stamford Bridge.
But, in the words of Lionel Hutz, what is a contract? For any football player, the contract only tells you how much you will make and when you will be able to leave on a free transfer. By this point no one, particularly not one of the parties to the contract, should think that the contract guarantees the player will be with that team for the full term.
That is especially the case if one of those parties if Chelsea and the other is a highly-rated youth prospect. Until recently, Bertrand Traore was under a Chelsea contract until June 2019.
The only meaningful part of Abraham’s new contract is the wages. He will earn a Premier League-level salary, which makes sense since he proved last year he is Premier League-quality and will be playing in the Premier League. Ironically, he will make the same amount that Dominic Solanke demanded and never received from Chelsea.
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A lot of factors will come together to determine if Tammy Abraham is leading the line alongside Romelu Lukaku two, four or six years from now. If he is, the contract he and Chelsea sign in the coming days will have – at most – a bit role.