If a club does not know a player is available, but he is, can he still be a transfer target? Or did Chelsea know Maxi Gomez was available, and inexplicably decided he was not even worth a rumour en route to signing Gonzalo Higuain?
Almost within the same hour Chelsea completed the tedious process of signing Gonzalo Higuain, rumours emerged that West Ham United could make a club record purchase of £43 million for Celta Vigo striker Maxi Gomez. The abruptness of this rumour made it seem like the kind of “throw stuff against the wall, see what drives clicks” from The Mirror or The Sun. But the initial reports came from reliable journalists, and The Telegraph and other mostly-trustworthy sources followed suit.
As recently at Tuesday there were no indications Maxi Gomez was on the market. There were no indications he was interested in leaving Celta Vigo. Nor were there signs that West Ham were aiming to do something ambitious and unequivocally intelligent in this window. The rumour came into the world in its fully formed state, and quite far along the path towards being a reality.
Chelsea fans should be demanding the club conduct a full, impartial, third-party board of inquiry into how this happened. This board should be tasked with determining if Chelsea knew Maxi Gomez was on the market. If not, why not? How not? What failures of scouting and snooping led to them missing out on an opportunity that West Ham United – West Ham! – were able to find?
If they did know – and this is where we enter the realm of staring into uncomfortable truths – did they truly rate Gonzalo Higuain as a better option?
Gomez has nine goals and five assists in La Liga for Celta Vigo this season. Last season he had 17 goals and four assists. Those are almost the same numbers from the same playing minutes as Gonzalo Higuain had last year. But whereas Higuain was with Serie A title-winning Juventus, Gomez did it with La Liga’s 13th place Celta Vigo.
Unlike Higuain’s, Gomez’s career is on the ascent. Gomez is nine years younger than the newest Blue. Chelsea will be lucky if they get 18 months out of Higuain (the second 12 of which will cost them an additional £15 million). Whether they buy him outright or keep him as a loanee, they will not get any resale value on him. The pounds move in only one direction with Higuain. By contrast, they could have Gomez practically indefinitely for £43 million. Divided over the potential years and goals, the upfront cost would be laughable.
Even if Gomez flopped and Chelsea moved to unload him after two years, they would still be able to sell him for a small profit. Players do not go from Celta Vigo to Chelsea without their transfer values rising. The Blues have a productive record of selling unproductive players for a profit.
There is little reason, though, to think he would flop. His two seasons of success at Celta Vigo are a significant contrast to Higuain’s replacement at AC Milan, Krzysztof Piatek. Serie A has a record of one-season goal-scoring wonders (remember a couple years ago when we were all about Chelsea signing Andrea Belotti? Whew, dodged that bullet). Piatek needs that second season to prove he is not the next player to go that route.
Gomez is also not a one-man show at Celta Vigo. Iago Aspas is Celta Vigo’s leading scorer. Gomez is not the only one producing, he is not dragging the team through, he does not have to shoulder the entire burden of scoring and he knows how to work in tandem with another high-output player. He knows how to work as part of a productive offensive unit. He is also taller than Gonzalo Higuain, giving Chelsea the physical presence they need in a target man.
All of which is to say, he could very much be the complement Eden Hazard needs up front.
Maxi Gomez is precisely the type of striker Chelsea were looking for on every dimension save one: he has never worked with Maurizio Sarri. We said repeatedly in the last month or so that this is the weakest argument for buying any player, yet it seemed to be the dominant argument for buying Higuain. Likewise, it is the weakest argument for not buying a player, and we can only wonder if it is the reason Chelsea did not bother inquiring about Gomez or showing interest if they already knew.
Chelsea’s next manager – whoever he is and whenever he arrives – would much rather see Maxi Gomez in his locker room than Gonzalo Higuain or whichever 30-something player the Blues buy to keep the Olivier Giroud – Gonzalo Higuain cycle alive. Buying Maxi Gomez from Celta Vigo for £43 million is a forward-looking transfer conceived and executed with vision, strategy and intelligence. He makes good football sense and good financial sense. For any club needing a striker – really, desperately needing a striker – he fits the short term and long-term needs.
If Maurizio Sarri cannot see that, someone at the club needs to see it for him. And if Maurizio Sarri does not want that, someone at the club needs to tell him that there’s more to the club than a Napoli reunion.
On a related note, we hear Michael Emenalo is looking for a new job. Perhaps he’d like to emulate his brief colleague Leonardo Jardim and take a new old job.