Chelsea steadfastly refusing the easiest £55 million of the summer

Chelsea will not rest until they accept market value or lower for Willian. Barcelona should just give up and buy a petulant post-prime winger from a team willing to take their money.

Let’s break this down into manageable, Chelsea-sized chunks. Chelsea bought Willian for £32 million. He is currently worth about £34 million in the dry, technical land of TransferMarkt. £55 million is nearly double what they paid and what he is worth. £55 million is Barcelona’s latest offer.

Let’s break it down even more. £55 million is good! (Explain how) Money can be exchanged for goods and services. (Explain further) £55 million can buy many other players. (Woohoo!)

And this is before we bring up how Barcelona are in La Liga, unlike Manchester United. Chelsea could possibly face Willian as a Barcelona player in the Champions League. They absolutely would face Willian as a Manchester United player in the Premier League. And while Willian’s success – were he to have any – at Barcelona would have no impact on life at Chelsea except for that potential Champions League meeting, any success as a Red Devil would directly, adversely impact the Blues’ ambitions.

Each bid from Barcelona, along with the interest from Manchester United, greatly overprices Willian. The Blues are on the verge of turning a nearly 100% profit on a player who is entering the final year of his contract, and the stage where the club would put him on the single-year renewal program.

The best spin on Chelsea’s approach to Barcelona’s offers is they are holding firm to force Barcelona to raise their price. The latest bid – the third – is £2 million more than the previous one.

Chelsea could not possibly hope for offers as generous as the ones Barcelona and United are submitting. They are pushing every bit of luck they have by trying to extract more money or some undetermined concession from either suitor. This is not a generational player entering his prime, nor a player with a truly unique skill set. Willian is an excellent winger and – with one notable recent exception – an upstanding character. But he is not a player you pound the table and go all in for. Maybe Jose Mourinho does, but that is a different story altogether.

Before long Barcelona will realize the futility of their efforts and move on. They can find better ways to spend £55 million, and still fill their needs on the wing. And when that happens, Chelsea will still have to sell Willian. They will do so either at a price closer to his market value, or for a similar fee to Manchester United, where he will join the Mourinho reunion and work against Chelsea’s ambitions in the Premier League.

If Chelsea are playing hardball, they picked the wrong player and the wrong time and the wrong offer to do it. Perhaps this is their childish way of emulating Aurelio de Laurentiis. The Blues could learn a lot about tough-nosed negotiating tactics from him. But one of the first lessons is to pick your battles wisely.

Next: Cesc Fabregas leads the peer pressure on Eden Hazard

Chelsea currently are fighting themselves much harder than they’ve ever fought an adversary at the negotiating table