Chelsea: Gonzalo Higuain arrives to high expectations and low standards

Gonzalo Higuain only needs to be decent for Chelsea to get what they need out of him for this season, and to spare any long-lasting effects. Fortunately, that seems the most likely outcome of this whole scheme.

Maurizio Sarri leads such a charmed existence at Stamford Bridge that he has enough fairy dust to spread around to his friends. Gonzalo Higuain, like Jorginho, is under the protection of whatever spell keeps Sarri’s acolytes in their orgiastic stupor (you know, the one where they metronomically intone “you don’t understand registas”).

As a result, like his fellow Napoli alumni at midfield, Higuain is expected to be the striker Chelsea have not had since Didier Drogba, but will be loved and defended regardless of what he actually does on his mercenary tour.

Higuain has a rather friendly run of games to at least prove himself equal to Chelsea’s last three strikers: Alvaro Morata, Michy Batshuayi and Olivier Giroud. In their first 10 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea, those three scored seven, five and three goals, respectively.

Higuain will likely make his debut this weekend against Sheffield Wednesday. The subsequent nine games include two trips to the relegation zone to face Huddersfield and Fulham, the latter having the Premier League’s worst defence. The run also features both legs against Malmo FF in the Europa League. Because the Swedish football season runs from March through November, Malmo will not have had a competitive game in two months (the Europa League group stages).

That schedule should be enough for Higuain to be in the Batshuayi-Giroud range of Chelsea debuts. Then again, he has only one goal since November 1.

These 10 games will also provide an immediate test of the most common justification for his signing: he knows Sarri’s system. The passage of three years (not to mention the aging of three years) is brushed off as irrelevant to the question of how quickly and seamlessly Higuain will integrate into the starting XI.

In a deliciously self-owning way, Sarri’s and Higuain’s fans are right. Higuain should be able to slot right in because Sarri’s tactics, circuits and training methods have not changed much more in the last three years than they have in the last three months. As long as he can remember the basics and get a refresher from reviewing the playbook, Higuain should not need much time to prepare for Sarrismo.

A performance at either end of the spectrum will be damaging for Chelsea in the long-term. If he scores 10 goals, enables Eden Hazard to be a No. 10 and unlocks Sarrismo among the forwards, Maurizio Sarri will pressure Chelsea to extend the loan and then consider the option to buy. A second season on loan would cost £15 million, and his release clause is just over £30 million. That would be money down the drain, as Higuain already has minimal resale value and will have even less at the end of 2019/20. Whatever he gains for the club will be zeroed out by his costs, and this is without even delving into the impact on Tammy Abraham.

On the other hand, if Higuain flops neither Maurizio Sarri nor his supporters will learn the proper lesson. That we are even having this conversation right now suggests Chelsea FC would not learn it either.

Any failures by Higuain will be cast upon the rest of the squad. It won’t be that Chelsea bought the wrong player – it’s that they didn’t buy enough of the right players. Not on him, not on the system, not on the coach who wanted him. It’s the fault of the nine other non-Jorginho Blues. How much can you expect Maurizio Sarri to do when he only has Jorginho and Gonzalo Higuain to work with? the foolishness will go.

If only we could be confident Chelsea wouldn’t brainlessly nod their head and make inquiries for Elseid Hysaj, Daniele Rugani or whoever else remains on the Sarri wish list.

The best case scenario, then, is that Higuain has a perfectly mediocre and serviceable season. Like the kind Alvaro Morata was having. Or the kind Michy Batshuayi would probably have if given the chance. Or Krzysztof Piatek or Maxi Gomez or any other player with a future and a resale value could have had.

Perfectly mediocre and serviceable seems the order of the day. Chelsea have taken a torturous, expensive and redundant route to achieve it, but as we often say, football is a results business.