Chelsea may have a centreback plan by opening talks with Antonio Rudiger
By George Perry
Chelsea may not know who their best centrebacks are this season but they may know who they want to have around for several more. The Blues are reportedly opening contract extension talks with Antonio Rudiger.
Antonio Rudiger’s lingering injuries from last season and then his beyond-freak injury in the tunnel at Wolves in mid-September precluded him from playing regularly until mid-December. But from December 10 until the season “ended,” he played every minute of all but one Chelsea game in the Premier League and Champions League. Even so, he still is fourth among the four centrebacks for minutes played in 2019/20.
Rudiger’s contract expires in 2022, the same as Andreas Christensen’s but before Kurt Zouma’s and Fikayo Tomori’s. SkySports reports Chelsea are looking to match Rudiger’s time at the club with Zouma and Tomori by offering the German a three year deal (starting now, which would only be a one year extension of the current contract) with the option for a fourth year.
At the end of the initial term of the extension, Rudiger would be 30 years old, which means the option is basically the first of what we can imagine would be a series of one-year offerings.
For the most part, these talks do not really change much other than give Chelsea a head start on their summer and autumn business, and the terms themselves don’t give the Blues that much more runway with Rudiger.
If there’s anything to read into it, it’s that the club are tabbing Rudiger to be the experienced senior centreback to anchor the backline and bring the others up to speed. That implies that Chelsea are not intending to search for a high-profile well-established centreback in the next transfer windows. Rudiger’s extension will almost certainly come with a pay increase, so unless the Blues plan on selling at least one of the other centrebacks to make room in the squad and budget for a “Rudiger plus.” The one way in which signing a top centreback would make sense alongside an extension for Rudiger would be if the Blues bought a young, emerging but still proven prospect (e.g., the next Matthias De Ligt, whoever that might be).
The next question on the horizon is whether the Blues will similarly extend Andreas Christensen. He has been linked with various moves away since the start of the 2018/19 season: the rumours were equally rooted in other teams wanting him and him wanting to leave Stamford Bridge.
Maurizio Sarri’s departure took the edge off Christensen’s desire to leave (funny how that keeps happening), but Christensen’s place in the squad has been about as consistent as his performance in it. There remains that lingering sense that he does not have the physique and the physical style of play to succeed in the Premier League, that he would be a star in the Bundesliga or La Liga but always be a bit player in England. But over the course of this season he has shown increasing willingness to take on opponents body-to-body in the air or on the ground.
The idea of Christensen leaving relatively early in the next transfer window seems about as likely as him playing several more years as a regular in Chelsea’s XI. Over the next few months we’ll see if that latter possibility stays on the table if the Blues engage him the way they currently are Antonio Rudiger.
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