Chelsea should keep their distance from the mad world of Mauro Icardi

Chelsea have a cliquish and brittle locker room, a string of failed strikers, a slew of social media faux pas and an on-again / off-again relationship the Champions League and Europa League. That should be enough to dissolve any interest between the Blues and Mauro Icardi, by mutual consent.

Chelsea FC probably think they have seen every way things can go wrong with a highly-rated, transfer record-setting striker. Mauro Icardi: Hold my wife’s beer.

Having not scored a goal in his last even league games – the longest such stretch since joining Inter Milan – Icardi apparently decided to voluntarily extend his drought to the Europa League. Inter coach Luciano Spalletti explained that “because there are things going on which are disturbing [Icardi] and the team” the Argentinian striker “informed the club that he didn’t feel like coming with us” to Vienna for Inter’s first Round of 32 tie. Spalletti responded by stripping Icardi of the captaincy.

This is merely the latest – and certainly not the last – anti-Inter spectacle from Team Icardi. ESPN reports Icardi’s wife and agent, Wanda Nara, complained about the lack of support Inter’s players had given Icardi. It was not clear if this is in reference to his goal drought or his ongoing contact negotiations.

Icardi still has two full years remaining on his contract at Inter, yet is embroiled in increasingly acrimonious negotiations. Likely at issue is his £96 million release clause, which is surely slowing down any attempts to move. However, Icardi referenced a contract extension – rather than changes to his current terms – in an Instagram post where he said he will make a decision “when Inter presents me an appropriate and concrete offer.”

Say what you want about how Alvaro Morata handles himself during goal droughts. Inter Milan would surely prefer a striker who went home to blow dry his fiance’s hair rather than have a striker with an agent-wife as inflammatory as Nara.

The last month of Icardi – culminating in his Europa League recusal – combines some of the worst elements scattered throughout Chelsea’s recent history. There are elements of William Gallas, Diego Costa, Charly Musonda / Kenedy, the Willian / Luiz faction, the Hazard / Fabregas / Costa “rats” incident. And on top of it all, the involvement of not just a wife and not just an agent, but a wife-agent. Thank heavens Mino Raiola never married a client.

All but the rarest few strikers go through the occasional goal drought. Chelsea have a particular record of strikers experiencing droughts so long and frequent that it seems silly to call them droughts, inasmuch as not scoring becomes the baseline. As a matter of simple professionalism, strikers must be able to handle those spells without causing friction or outright conflict in the locker room. Alvaro Morata’s moping may have annoyed his teammates going back to Gianluigi Buffon, but he never brought down the locker room.

Mauro Icardi’s attitude over the last few months was already placing a strain on his teammates and the squad’s cohesion. Then Nara interjected herself to blame those players for not supporting Icardi. Icardi then abandoned them when he – as captain – was supposed to be leading them into the next stage of the Europa League.

Luciano Spalletti’s remarks testified to the impact the whole drama has had on the team:

"It is a very hard decision to take, but it is one that everybody within the club shared, and one which was taken exclusively for the good of Inter… [T]here are things going on which are disturbing him and the team."

Chelsea simply do not need any of this, not one bit, not even if it comes with 20-some league goals each season.

The locker room is already a series of tactical alliances between the various cliques. They have enough players enmeshed in will-he-or-won’t-he contract games. The club have had to do enough social media damage control between Charly Musonda going emo, Kenedy offending China and Willian (or his daughter) and David Luiz acting like the Mean Girls on Instagram. Their strikers seem to flame out in proportion to their expectations and transfer fees. A regular part of that process is the fans turning on the struggling striker. Icardi had to deliver goals just to work his way up to a love-hate relationship with Inter’s fans, and shows little interest in dissipating the hate.

Everything about Mauro Icardi is a warning sign. He would cost a lot of money up front and would end up exacting an even greater toll on Chelsea FC. The nearly nine-figure release clause would be the least expensive part of the process.

Just when you thought Tammy Abraham couldn’t look any better as an option, the Icardi-Nara axis of insanity makes the case for the homegrown solution.