Chelsea transfer roundup for 12 July to 18 July, 2021

3. Chelsea interested in Alfonso Pedraza of Villarreal

Earlier this week Will Faulks made an exclusive tweet saying “Chelsea’s interest in Alfonso Pedraza is serious. They will look to sign him later this summer, if and when both Marcos Alonso and Emerson Palmieri are gone. Villarreal is open to selling and the player is happy to move for a big wage bump.” He further goes on to give an overview about the player but concerningly calls him “Emerson 2.0”. Does this transfer make sense? For me, it doesn’t because buying a player to be a backup by selling players who already are decent enough backups.

Chelsea has two backup left-backs to Ben Chilwell, Marcos Alonso, and Emerson Palmieri. The Italian full-back is being strongly linked with Napoli but the Spanish full-back seems to be in the plans of the German coach. Even if the club sells Emerson Palmieri, buying another full-back would be a bad decision. Instead of buying a new full-back, the club should look to promote or give chances to young players like Dujon Sterling, Ian Maatsen, or even the Academy Player of the Year Valentino Livramento.

Having these young players train and play with the likes of Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Marcos Alonso, and many more experienced players will certainly help them in their development. Plus this would also help the club in assuring the upcoming young players that there is a pathway to the first team and help the club from the problem of young players stalling their contracts. Another advantage of promoting youth would mean that financially the club could save around £20 million because Villarreal will demand a fee of around £20 million. With the club’s big ambitions of signing quality players like Erling Haaland and Declan Rice, buying Alfonso Pedraza would go down as an unnecessary and a bad signing.