Kurt Zouma gets to pick his next club, not Chelsea

I’ve been writing about Chelsea for some time and that often requires me to see some truly stupid things about the club. I often write about those things, not for the boo boys who are too ignorant to see sense, but for those that sympathize but aren’t too far gone.

So this one isn’t for the morons that view Kurt Zouma as a bargaining chip in a high stakes game. This is for those upset that he’d rather join West Ham than Sevilla. Would that kill the Jules Kounde deal? It would go a long ways towards it but at the end of the day, Kurt Zouma gets to choose his next club. Not Chelsea.

Let’s back up and discuss why Zouma is leaving at all. Of the centerbacks, Zouma has the highest value at the moment. Andreas Christensen, Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, and Thiago Silva are all on short contracts that lessen what the club could get for them. Furthermore, Zouma is stylistically the worse fit for Thomas Tuchel. He is still an excellent defender, just not for the current needs of Tuchel’s three at the back.

Kounde is a better fit and Sevilla already showed with Tottenham that they would at least entertain a swap deal. But one of the main reasons why swap deals are so rare is because players don’t want to be forced to go to clubs. Any deal involving Kounde to Chelsea and Zouma to Sevilla requires the approval of four parties: both clubs and both players. If one says no, it falls apart and rightfully so.

Now West Ham want Zouma too. They are below Chelsea’s valuation, so it is acceptable that Chelsea says no. At the same time, it is acceptable that Zouma waits to see if they increase the offer because he seemingly prefers the Hammers to going to La Liga.

This is the part that confuses even the sensible fans. Why would he go to West Ham instead of a team in the Champions League? Doesn’t he want to compete? And that is one of those tangents where fans forget that players are, at the end of the day, people.

Imagine you suddenly got a job offer in another country. You’ve never lived in that country, you don’t speak the language, but it would keep you at about the same career level that you’re at currently. At the same time, a slightly smaller company in the same city gives you a job offer. They aren’t as prestigious as your current job, but one day they could be. Your time at your current job is done no matter what so which is more appealing?

Many would choose that similar prestige job elsewhere. And many others would choose to stay in the same city. The trick is that there isn’t a right answer. The person gets to choose. They can’t be forced to choose simply by what is convenient to their current employer.

Zouma gets to choose his next club. Not Chelsea. He has his reasons for preferring West Ham over Sevilla. That doesn’t make him a traitor to the club or doing wrong by Chelsea. It makes him a person.