Chelsea needs to know when to walk away from an Erling Haaland transfer

With most of the summer international tournaments done (Gold Cup and the Olympics aside) and Chelsea preseason underway, the club no longer has an excuse to move slowly in the transfer market. The club is not in dire need of players, but the time to strike while the iron is hot is surely after winning the Champions League.

Top of  the list is someone, anyone, that can reliably put the ball in the back of the net. The Blues can make do if need be, but there is only so high Chelsea can go when they can’t figure out who will be the trustworthy goal scorer week to week. That’s where the Erling Haaland rumors come in. He and Kylian Mbappe are vying for the new Lionel Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo of the next decade. Chelsea wants to get in on the ground floor before Haaland becomes as unattainable as Messi and Ronaldo have been for most of their careers.

But, at some point, Chelsea needs to learn when to walk away. Haaland will go for pennies next summer as his release clause becomes active. That will mean competition that isn’t present this summer. At the same time, when the price is more than double that release clause, seemingly only rising, and not accounting for the exorbitant agent fees? At some point, you need to know when to walk away. Chelsea wants Erling Haaland, but there should be a limit on how much they are willing to be squeezed.

The biggest reason Chelsea might be willing to overpay this summer compared to next is the lack of competition. If Haaland stays in blue for five seasons, scoring 20-30 goals each season, then 150 million seems about fair right now. But if even that price tag doesn’t cause Dortmund to budge, the Blues really need to consider how desperate they are and if there are any alternatives that might be better off for the club.

The first alternative is use who is already around. Tammy Abraham, with a full preseason under Thomas Tuchel, could again look like a Premier League starter for the Blues. Armando Broja is a dark horse candidate that Tuchel might just see something special in. Kai Havertz could find his form from Bayer Leverkusen up top as well.

The second alternative is a stop gap signing. Chelsea is no stranger to these after a few seasons of Samuel Eto’o, Demba Ba, and even Olivier Giroud in a way. Danny Ings seems to be the go to name for this idea. This signing would need only to get the job done until next summer when Chelsea again goes for Haaland.

There is seemingly a consensus that it is now or never for a Haaland signing. Haaland, however, might see how hard Chelsea is pursuing him for fees far beyond a transfer fee next season and decide he’d rather go to the club willing to throw it all in for him. That would be a gamble, but hardly an unheard of one.

The last option is to give up on Haaland entirely and find another striker to lead the line. The Blues are likely already behind in this pursuit and there would (and should) be a fear of going for a plan B option instead of waiting for plan A. Romelu Lukaku or Harry Kane could be a bit of both if the Blues could convince either to push for a move. Otherwise, the consensus seems to form around players like Patrick Schick and Alexander Isak. Though that might work, there is far more risk involved surrounding them compared to Haaland.

More than anything though, Chelsea just needs to know when Haaland goes from worth it to overpriced. Yes, that limit does exist even for a striker like him. The Blues can afford to blow a full transfer windows worth of cash on one player but if it starts digging into other windows, it just creates more problems later. Not to mention the wages and the potential inflation that might come along with the signing.

Haaland will be one of the world’s two best players for the next decade. Being his club is alluring, but there is a limit to how much that allure should cost. Chelsea may not want to wait, but that might be the best idea at some point.