Chelsea have shown a lot of positive signs this season, one of them being the club's readiness to compete and beat some of the best in world football. That being said, plenty of shortcomings remain as well, which are preventing them from challenging for the Premier League and the Champions League. One of them is the lack of a truly world-class goalscorer.
That is something Chelsea have missed since Diego Costa left the club. Since then, plenty have been signed to fill the void. But the likes of Alvaro Morata, Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and plenty others have failed.
Currently, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap are the club's two primary options at striker. The former has quality for sure. But with 9 goals in 25 appearances for Chelsea, he cannot be termed 'world-class'.
On the other hand, Delap seems to be trending towards being a 'flop'. He has scored merely twice in 17 appearances for the club. And there is little chance that we will see Nicolas Jackson in a Chelsea shirt again. So, the club might need to look towards the striker market in the near future.
Chelsea tipped to sign €80 million striker for free
Recently, football.london put out a list of players Chelsea can sign for free. One of the names is that of Dusan Vlahovic.
Not too long ago, Vlahovic was considered amongst the best young strikers in Europe and was competing with a certain Erling Haaland. It would be safe to say that their careers have headed in different directions since then.
Haaland has fulfilled his promise since joining Manchester City and continues to score goals for fun. On the other hand, Vlahovic has never found the next level at Juventus. He has scored 64 goals in 162 appearances for the Turin side. A decent return but not what they would have been expecting when the club shelled out a €80 million fee to sign him from Fiorentina.
Vlahovic's current contract with Juventus runs out next summer and it does not look like he has any intention of extending his deal. This might be a chance for Chelsea to swoop in and sign him as a free agent. That being said, the Blues seem reluctant to hand out big wage packets to players these days, which might be a stumbling block when it comes to any deal for the 25-year-old Serbian international striker.