The Chelsea story of the summer. Non-stop news of Erling Haaland to Chelsea across social media is heating up your timeline feeds.
The international tournaments are completed and all the focus is on club football. A majority of European clubs have begun preseason camp with some of their returning players. On Tuesday Borussia Dortmund had their first training session of preseason and immediately when a reporter appeared, he asked Haaland: “Are you staying at Borussia Dortmund?” Haaland simply smiled and said nothing. Make of that what you will. The whole Chelsea football community on social media went crazy when rumors circulated of Haaland’s response.
The Norwegian superstar blew up the Bundesliga last season scoring 27 goals in just 28 league matches. Haaland netted 10 goals in only eight UEFA Champions League matches last season for Borussia Dortmund making him one of the hottest properties in European football. Early on Tuesday morning reports from numerous sources spread with news that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic released €175m (£150m) for the club to approach Dortmund with a bid.
There are various complications in the signature of Erling Haaland. His agent Mino Raiola wants a €40 million commission for the transfer. With that sum of money, you could buy N’Golo Kante and you could most certainly get Tammy Abraham among others and Raiola wants €40m commission, which is utter nonsense.
Should Dortmund accept a bid from Chelsea it is very likely that Haaland’s wages would surpass that of Kante’s who is currently on around £290,000 a week at Chelsea. Latest reports suggest that Haaland is still the Blues’ number one target this summer. No agreement has been reached between the two clubs as of yet. The German club is really hesitant on letting go of their most prized asset, having already surrendered Englishman Jadon Sancho to Premier League club Manchester United, but will consider a bid with the right amount.
On Thursday afternoon numerous news outlets reported that Borussia Dortmund rejected a bid from Chelsea, a bid which included players like Tammy Abraham and Hudson-Odoi in exchange along with a hefty sum of money. However later on that day many high resourced journalists revealed that Dortmund never received any official bid from the European Champions. The German club are adamant that Haaland would stay put this summer and only when a “crazy” transfer fee arrives the club will consider but until then they have no intention of selling.
The Blues fans have much to get excited about considering the German club are closing in on a deal for Dutch striker Donyell Malen from PSV. The signature of Malen to Dortmund is a little glimmer of light for the Chelsea fans and will hope that the Norwegian will be on a flight to South West London in the near future.
What could the signing mean for Chelsea and their preparations for the upcoming season? Head coach Thomas Tuchel’s desired formation is 3-4-3. Competition upfront will be fierce with Timo Werner added to the equation. The German struggled to impress in his debut season in front of goal scoring only 12 goals in 52 appearances in all competitions and 15 assists as well. Haaland could well replace Werner at the man up top in the starting XI downgrading the German to an impact player from the bench and the odd start in cup games which would not be a bad thing, far from it. Chelsea’s front three this season could feature Mason Mount, Erling Haaland and Kai Havertz. A very exciting looking front three and a force to be reckoned with this season.
Chelsea is also lining up to sell high profile players still this summer. The next couple of weeks could be crucial for the Blues, considering what they do in the transfer window, but as always with Chelsea: patience is a virtue. With preseason underway and daily transfer news to keep your eyes close to your device. This is turning out to be a much talked about transfer window in recent seasons.
Let us know down below if you think Chelsea can secure Erling Haaland this summer window.
All stats are from transfermarkt.