Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen as good as gone with contract tactic

A player is not obligated to sign a contract with Chelsea. This is an idea often forgotten when it comes to transfers and extensions. Just because the club wants something does not mean that they have a divine right to it. The club can be fair with their offers, but at the end of the day there is a person on the other side of that table allowed to make their own decisions.

Andreas Christensen, or maybe his agent, has decided not to sign the current offer on the table. This isn’t the first time this season where everything seemed wrapped up only for things to hit another snag. But, again, Christensen cannot be forced to sign the contract.

Chelsea is trying though. Thomas Tuchel himself admitted that Andreas Christensen has not been playing because he has not extended. This is a tactic that backfires. Chelsea has overplayed their hand and Christensen might as well be as good as gone.

Players want to play. That isn’t news to anyone. If the goal of a negotiation is to convince a player to stay, there is very little incentive for them to stay at a club that is willing to exile them because they aren’t extending. Again, players cannot be forced to sign a contract. If the club wants Christensen to extend, they need to show him he’ll be valued more in blue than in other colors. This action by the board or Tuchel or whoever is calling the shots does the opposite of that. It tells Christensen that he is expendable. Maybe that is true, maybe it isn’t. But the die has been cast.

So, this decision is one of pettiness. Yes, Christensen has not extended after several negotiations looked close. But he is still under contract at Chelsea. Not playing him does not make the point the club thinks it does. Now, Chelsea will be down a player because of pettiness and they will run other players into the ground because of pettiness. Should those players become injured, does the club come crawling back to Christensen? Or do they stay in their spite and keep playing others? Christensen, so lo long as he is under contract, should be used. He shouldn’t be something Chelsea is using to tie their hands behind their back.

And what of the other players running short on contract? Are Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva, and Cesar Azpilicueta going to start looking over their shoulder for if they are next? Even if Christensen is being punished for the multiple offers, at what point does someone at the club decide Rudiger isn’t committed enough and shouldn’t play?

What Christensen and/or his agents have done isn’t right. What Chelsea is doing to “get back” isn’t right. It just guarantees an outcome and not the one Chelsea wants. If the Blues want Christensen to extend, there is little trust after a move like this. If they just want him gone, then they’ve made the right call.

Or maybe (hopefully), this is all some big bluff by Tuchel and Christensen is back in the XI against Watford, and he can show that he is still the one calling the shots and Christensen can still be a Chelsea player so long as he is under contract.