Chelsea: Erling Haaland seems like another Alex Sandro situation

Chelsea is a club of bad habits. Sure, those bad habits often don’t matter in the long run as the Blues have an almost sitcom like quality of drawing the good out from the bad. But those bad habits do limit the club from what it could be and eventually, they won’t come out with everything working out in the end more often than not.

One of their worst bad habits is tunnel vision. Chelsea often finds one player that they need so badly that the alternatives fall away. Then they can’t get that player and scramble late in the window.

What’s perhaps worse is other clubs understand this about Chelsea. The club will go back and forth on a price before ultimately deciding to pay it, only for the selling club to raise the price. This will go on an entire window until the Blues enter that panic mode.

Most famously, this was the case with Alex Sandro. Antonio Conte wanted the club to go for him and so they did. But every time it seemed like the Blues would be able to pay the price Juventus asked, the price would go up. This went on the entire window until the club turned their attention towards Juventus’ number one target if Sandro left: Emerson.

The same thing happened with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Davide Zappacosta. And Alisson and Kepa Arrizabalaga. And Kalidou Koulibaly. Even Achraf Hakimi. The list can go on and on as the Blues got so focused on one player that all the alternatives were sold off by the time they changed gears.

The Erling Haaland saga feels just like that. The price has seemingly risen from 120 million to 175 million with agent fees sometimes taking it up to the 200 million mark. Dortmund know Chelsea only have eyes for Haaland so they can set the price to whatever level they wish. They are already at a place of not wanting to sell for various reasons. Nothing stops them from raising the price indefinitely and then not selling at all if Chelsea plays their game like it often has in the past.

Briefly, Romelu Lukaku and Harry Kane seemed like alternatives the club would entertain. With Hakimi being transferred, Inter Milan are less in need of big sales and Lukaku is interested in working under the new management. Kane is a Tottenham player and the chances of Daniel Levy selling to the Blues are slim. But, realistically, how are those mission impossible any different than the current one for Haaland?

Dortmund would lose their ability to raise the price indefinitely if they knew Chelsea had serious interest in Lukaku or Kane. Inter Milan aren’t as needy for cash as they were but they could still do a lot with upwards of 100 million for a 28 year old. And if Kane truly wants to leave, it might just be more appealing to keep his young family settled in London than moving them up to Manchester.

All of this is an aside from Haaland having a buy clause next summer. That means more competition, yes, but it should mean something that only one club is willing to be then laser focused on him at a constantly rising price. Chelsea could survive another season with the squad they had. It’s not ideal to win the Champions League and have what you hold but it’s doable given it’ll be Thomas Tuchel’s first full season. That, plus showing Haaland that Chelsea is the only club that rates him this highly, might be the best play of all.

But right now, it’s hard to shake that this seems like the Chelsea tunnel vision of old. It feels like a window where Chelsea chases Haaland until the last weeks of the window, gives up, and signs a plan B option that takes away from the coffers and doesn’t really improve the side.

Preseason has just begun and players are already being touted with moves away. Perhaps that is the catalyst for moving away from the tunnel vision of the rest of the window. It just seems Chelsea has a bad habit they can’t shake for now though.