Chelsea have enough potential for conflict and drama without Mauro Icardi
By George Perry
Rumours of Chelsea’s interest in Mauro Icardi are helping the football world while away the international break. The Blues do not need a striker who brings so much baggage and potential for conflict.
If you were scripting a Netflix series about the recent history of Chelsea FC, each of the last few seasons serve up a defining and well-defined conflict. 2015/16: Jose Mourinho vs. the players vs. the fans who called them rats. 2016/17: Antonio Conte vs. Diego Costa. 2017/18: Antonio Conte vs. the board.
Other sub-dramas and storylines picked up and trailed off along the way, but these shaped the club as well as the narrative around it. Not that it is in Chelsea’s nature in the Roman Abramovich era, but some relative serenity and comity would be a nice change at Stamford Bridge. At the very least, they should not invite someone in who brings an enormous amount of his own baggage and shows little interest in shedding it. The rumours are probably nothing substantial, but Chelsea should not be pursuing Mauro Icardi.
AS – Spain’s version of The Mirror as far as transfer rumours go – claim Chelsea offered Inter Milan £55 million for Icardi. The story picks up steam with talk of Chelsea needing a quick signature on the offer before Real Madrid comes in for Icardi. The Real Madrid element has a bit more to it, as Argentina’s coach Jorge Sampaoli said Icardi is “a little tempted” by the attention.
First the football. Icardi is on pace for a career-best season. He has 22 goals in 24 games, having scored 24 goals in 34 games last season. Only Lorenzo Insigne has more goals in Serie A this season. Icardi’s goals account for just under 50% of Inter’s total production. If they return to the Champions League next season, Icardi deserves much of the credit.
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And that leads to the price. The supposed £55 million bid is within a few million pounds of Chelsea’s club record fee for Alvaro Morata. Icardi is more important to Inter than Morata was to Real Madrid, and has a much better goal-scoring record than Morata ever did. Add in Chelsea’s record of failure in negotiations with Serie A clubs, and there is no way Inter will let Icardi leave for Chelsea for a mere £55 million.
But neither football nor finance should be the main factors. Chelsea’s thoughts on the subject should not even progress that far.
Sampdoria are in seventh place in Serie A. They are a distant possibility for next year’s Europa League. Maxi Lopez may be gone, but if Sampdoria comes up into the Europa League and Chelsea drop down the Blues will feature in a watered down version of the Wanda Derby.
Icardi has an unpleasant history with Inter’s fans, one which he revised a bit in his autobiography (remember when players would wait until retirement to write autobiographies?). That, in turn, spilled over into a conflict with Inter’s directors.
And on top of that, Icardi is a periodic wantaway. He has been at Inter since 2013, and has had flirtations, dalliances and daydreams of elsewhere along the way, even as he signed a five-year extensions in 2016.
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Now that he is 25, married to and represented by Wanda Nara and entering his prime footballing years, perhaps all this is behind him. Even with the scrutiny footballers live under there is still a statute of limitations on youthful indiscretions. But Chelsea already have enough dramatic potential in the locker room and in the club. Antonio Conte brought the locker room back together after Jose Mourinho, excised Diego Costa and is promoting more youth players into the first team than any manager since Carlo Ancelotti. Conte is doing what he can to make Chelsea a functional club again. John Terry’s eventual return is another element of Chelsea’s plan to create some sense of unity.
No one player – particularly one who is not even on the team – is worth jeopardizing that progress. And as an aside, could you imagine the Christmas party if Mauro Icardi, John Terry and Thibaut Courtois are all around?
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Chelsea have many other options at striker. As outlandish as these ideas may be in some quarters of the Blue world, they could not write off Alvaro Morata and bring Michy Batshuayi back as a starter next season. Some out of the box thinking, right? They do not need Mauro Icardi’s goal-scoring abilities to compete on any front, and they certainly do not need everything he brings with him.