Yesterday, Chelsea confirmed the move of Tammy Abraham to Italian side, AS Roma. The homegrown Blues boy is now off to Italy to work underneath his former manager, Jose Mourinho, and we wish him nothing but the very best. However, as the Blues part ways with Abraham, and embrace Romelu Lukaku with open arms, one must ask the question, was the youngster let go of too early?
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We must recall the number of young superstars who slipped away from the West London side in order to build a more spectacular career, and even Lukaku was one of those youngsters. Apart from that, the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Mohammed Salah, and even Thorgan Hazard, were all part of the Blues family once. These players were not appreciated enough, and they went on to have stellar careers with rival teams.
Tammy Abraham is ready to reboot his career with AS Roma
While Tammy is certainly not at par with the aforementioned players, we can’t help but think he has been treated a bit harshly by Thomas Tuchel. Yes, while the number nine was not the flashiest player, and yes, he was not the most consistent either, the fact is that he scored the most amount of goals for the club in the past two seasons.
The German manager has shown clear bias towards Timo Werner, although the former RB Leipzig striker fails to perform in front of the goal. The reason why Werner still gets selected, however, is due to the fact that he fits in with the high-paced pressing style that Tuchel desires. Abraham on the other hand is more of a stagnant number nine whose only job is to put the ball at the back of the net.
All that does not matter, however, as the player has already been signed by Roma, although the Blues do have a sign-back clause in the contract. We will see how the player turns out in two years, and then Chelsea could sign him back. However, as for now, we will be looking at the five talking points from this big transfer.
5. No more competition among the strikers
Last season, the reason why Tammy was not given too much game time was due to the fact that the Blues had two other world-class strikers. Werner was poised to be the striker who would strike fear into the hearts of the Premier League defenders, and Olivier Giroud was the World Cup winner who would make an impact from the bench. Thus, it was an awkward time for the English player, who was not given preference by either of the two managers last season. While Frank Lampard did start him in a few games and even tried two strikers upfront, Tuchel was not so sure about the youngster. The three strikers had to prove their worth in the training grounds, and fight for their place in the starting line-up, however, Tammy always ended up losing that fight. Now, with the departure of Abraham, as well as, Giroud, Chelsea are left with only Werner and Lukaku. While this may provide us with some sort of competition with the squad, it is more likely that both of them will be in the starting lineup with the German playing as a supporting striker. Thus, there will be a lack of competition however, there will be more harmony in the squad.
4. Frank Lampard’s team of youngsters have broken up
When Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard, took the managerial job in 2019, the club was going through a phase of a transfer ban. This meant that the English manager had to work with the team that he had, or bring forward some youngsters from the academy. He chose to do the latter and gave breakthrough seasons to four superstars, Mason Mount, Reece James, Abraham, Fikayo Tomori. These players were supposed to be the future of Chelsea, and Lampard had this romantic, although a bit idealistic idea, of bringing the academy boys into the main team. Football has always romanticized the thought of homegrown lads picking up major trophies however, this has not worked out all the time. While it did work out brilliantly for Barca back in the 2000-2010 era, it has since been more a buying and selling business. We all want to see our academy boys represent our clubs however, the fact of the matter is that more times than not, the players are do not fit in. Lampard’s utopian dream came to a crashing halt when Tomori was shipped off to AC Milan, and with Abraham off to Roma, we can safely say that the dream to make a team out of only academy players is now dead. Even the extremely talented Billy Gilmour has been loaned off this season, and only two players, Mount and James remain on the main team. However, with the recent addition of Trevoh Chalobah to the main team, it seems like Tuchel might be exploring the youth academy as well.
3. A solution to Chelsea’s number 9 problems
One of the biggest reasons why the London side has been struggling in recent years is due to a lack of goals from the strikers. The last competent striker who played in the blue shirt was Diego Costa however, he wore the number 19 shirt, and not the famous number 9 shirt. According to the Blue’s history, several world-class strikers have failed to make an impact after wearing the cursed number. The likes of Fernando Torress, Radamel Falcao, and Alvaro Morata, all failed to live up to their expectations, and it seemed like Chelsea would have to live without a proper number nine. Tammy did manage to lift the low goal-scoring curse however, he was also inconsistent and failed to score in important matches, against top-level teams. Lukaku who was originally given the number 18, has been shifted to the number 9, and hopefully, he will be the one to break the curse forever. He is one of the best strikers in the world right now, and he has matured a lot since his last time in the Premier League. Having scored 64 goals in two seasons with Inter Milan, fans are expecting a lot from him. His time with Manchester United wasn’t very good however, he has improved physically and mentally, and we can’t wait to see him back at the bridge.
2. Abraham’s transfer helps Chelsea maintain FFP rules
The Blues were one of the top spenders last season, bringing in five big earners to the club. Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell, Edouard Mendy, and Werner collectively cost the club around 200 million euros, and their wages were not low either. This made the team the biggest spenders of last season, and also one of the top clubs in terms of wages being paid. After bringing in Lukaku for a whopping 115 million euros, and making him the top earner of the club, the Blues knew they had to sell players in order to comply with the Financial Fair Play rules. Having already sold Tomori to Milan for around 30 million euros, the club was off to a good start but they needed more sales. Giroud was the next player to leave the club, and he joined Tomori for a fee of only 1 million euros. Victor Moses was then sold to Spartak Moscow for a sum of 5 million euros. Still, the Blues needed another big transfer, and Roma came through with a whopping 40 million euros. This will certainly help fund the huge Lukaku transfer, as well as, lower the wages down by a bit. The Blues have also let go of five more players in order to reduce their overall wages.
1. A New beginning for the Champions League winner
Abraham might be saying a teary goodbye to his childhood club, but he must embrace his new opportunity with open arms. The 23-year-old striker was stuck to the benches for the majority of last season, and that is not what a young and developing player needs. He does have the poacher’s instinct that every striker needs however, he needs to be more consistent with his finishing. Playing under Mourinho will be great for his future, as the Portuguese manager likes to play a more conservative, defensive style which is opposite to Tuchel’s high pressing style. This will allow Tammy to maintain his position in the opposition’s box, and he will be the target man for every ball played into the box. Apart from that, he will finally get the consistent playtime that he requires, and the Blues have a buy-back option for 80 million euros, thus if he performs well in Serie A, he could potentially end up back at Stamford Bridge.
However, for now, we wish him the very best, and hopefully one day we can see him back in a Chelsea shirt.