Chelsea fans shouldn’t be looking for this year’s James Rodriguez

Chelsea fans have plenty of transfer rumors to latch on to this summer, but many of them have been put on hold due to the Euros and a lesser extent Copa America. In their place is interest in the best players of the tournament. Yes, even before round one ends, fans are quickly asking whether or not this player or that player would be a better target for the club.

That’s not necessarily wrong, per se. International tournaments have long been a spring board for players’ careers reaching new heights. These tournaments also offer a very natural break point for players (and managers) looking for something new after a milestone.

Fans should be careful about this tournaments however. Good signings can be made but Chelsea won’t want to find the next James Rodriguez.

That’s not even to say James Rodriguez is a bad player because he certainly isn’t. But ever since he announced himself to the world at World Cup 2014 and got his move to Real Madrid, he’s been chasing that same peak. It’s not an uncommon phenomenon at tournaments like these. The uniqueness of playing against teams with loose structures at best, plus the shortness of the tournaments, can allow one in form player to shine in ways the regular season simply can’t reproduce to the same degree.

Real Madrid paid big for Rodriguez and never really got the player he was that World Cup. Even with the Euros and Copa America only just beginning, fans are already asking of someone like Kalvin Phillips instead of Declan Rice after the former’s electric display in one match of the tournament.

Phillips won’t be the last either. With Chelsea’s pursuit of a striker at least on hold or in a holding pattern at the moment, what happens when a player lights it up at one of these tournaments? Say Alexander Isak really kicks of this tournament. Do teams start ignoring the likes of Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland to try to sneak Isak in before he could become those players?

That example is probably more of a point for Chelsea than anyone else. If Real Madrid wants Mbappe, they won’t settle for someone else. If Manchester City wants Kane, they’ll only go for Kane. Chelsea, however, has shown themselves a bit more flexible (or as others would say, more willing to settle) for alternative targets.

It was always going to be unlikely to bring in Haaland or Lukaku, Rice, and Achraf Hakimi with a centerback also a possibility. Somewhere along that line, the Blues will surely have to cut corners and signing a breakout star from one of these tournaments may be their pathway to that.

But right now it is simply too early to start asking those questions and even after the tournament ends there should be weariness. The weirdness and uniqueness of international matches allows some players to stand out in ways they simply can’t during a regular season. Making signings based on them should be done very carefully if at all.