Despite six years and five trophies at Chelsea and now a World Cup call-up for Spain, Cesar Azpilicueta attracts fewer transfer rumours than the average youth loanee. Somehow, his talent remains under-appreciated. More importantly, even the tabloids and banter-mongers cannot impeach his character.
Flip over to your Chelsea feed on Google News or NewsNow. You’ll see headlines blaring the rumours about Thibaut Courtois, Alvaro Morata, David Luiz, Eden Hazard, Tomas Kalas and Thorgan Hazard. Now do a search for “Cesar Azpilicueta transfer rumours.” You’ll probably see Travis’s recent article near the top, the one where he used the words “Cesar Azpilicueta” and “transferred” in the title, referring to Spain’s tactical experiment at the World Cup.
Below that, you’ll see 1-2 articles from 2017 offering up Barcelona’s and Real Madrid’s interest in Azpilicueta, and plenty of articles with Azpilicueta responding to the doom-and-gloom chatter around the club. And that’s it. There will be a few index pages from transfer rumour aggregators, and Azpilicueta’s profile on TransferMarkt. But nothing more recent than 2017. Not much more before that.
Even those Barcelona rumours did not spawn the normal web of hot takes, regurgitations and what-if’s. Victor Moses was linked with Barcelona in early 2017 and we still make reference to it.
How is it that one of Chelsea’s longest-serving players, one of the club’s most undroppable players among every coach in that span, one of the most versatile defenders the Premier League has ever seen, does not attract any attention during the transfer windows?
For starters, Cesar Azpilicueta’s style of play does not catch the eye. One testament to Azpilicueta’s defending is how little seemingly happens on his side of the pitch. Azpilicueta tamps down incoming activity before the play picks up steam in his direction. When the play does come through, he grinds out tackles and keeps the play well outside Chelsea’s box. He does not appear all over the pitch like N’Golo Kante. He does not make powerful, body-sacrificing stops like John Terry or Gary Cahill. Nor is he flamboyant on the outside like one of his predecessors, Ashley Cole. Azpilicueta’s side is where the opposition’s momentum goes to die quietly.
Until his link-ups with Alvaro Morata this season, Azpilicueta’s passing contributions were equally muted, to the point of being anonymous. He was rarely anywhere on the xG chain, nor was he making highlight passes into the box. He has only slightly more goals than Cole, with only one (in the League Cup versus Leicester City) being memorable for its quality.
Azpilicueta is one of the Premier League’s top defenders. His teammates voted him the Players’ Player of the Year in 2013/14, his second season at Chelsea. Since then he is regularly among the best of the league in tackles. He has started for Chelsea in all competitions as a left-back, right-back and centre-back, and has deputized as a wing-back and midfielder. This season he added a career-best six assists to his top-line stats.
And yet for all that, no other teams seem to want him. Or, more precisely, the rumour mill does not bother with him.
Cesar Azpilicueta is the consummate professional footballer. In many ways, he is an anachronism. He is warm and open with the media, but he does not court the camera or the microphone. He applauds the fans in victory and defeat, and kisses the badge to celebrate his rare goals. And when he does, you believe it. You believe he honours that badge as much as you do: you the Chelsea fan reading a Chelsea fan site.
When asked last year about the Barcelona rumours, Azpilicueta was not coy or evasive. He did not dangle any tantalizing ambiguities. He called the rumours “flattering,” and immediately attributed the rumours to the success of the team. Then like a true gentleman, he frustrated the media in the most polite, direct and firm way possible:
"My objective since I arrived was to grow as a player and a person. I’ve adapted to the city, to the country. I feel settled, I’m comfortable with the language, my family is very happy. Right now my only objective is to continue with Chelsea. – Bleacher Report"
How simple. How honest. How boring. How annoying, if you were hoping to generate a week’s worth of transfer content out of him. Where do you go with this? To the next guy, the one who will give you something to work with.
Cesar Azpilicueta simply does not feed the beast. As a result, the beast no longer comes looking for him. Whether it is out of respect or simply because they know it is an implausible dead end, the rumour-mongers do not bother linking Azpilicueta to any moves out of Chelsea.
Cesar Azpilicueta has two years left on his contract, which will bring him up to age 30. Like John Terry, Azpilicueta is one of the players for whom Chelsea should make exceptions to their one-year contract policy for players over 30. No one in Blue would disapprove if Azpilicueta finished his career at Stamford Bridge. If he does choose to leave, he will do so with the quiet professionalism and respect that have defined his career. He and the club deserve better than to have his name dragged through the transfer rumours.
Next: Chelsea must do more than just hire Maurizio Sarri and hope for the best
We will all be quite satisfied if – sometime around 2023 – this article remains the top search result for “Cesar Azpilicueta transfer rumours.”