Chelsea Transfer Round-Ups Including The Supposed Mason Mount Replacement
Written By Onyeka Daniel
It’s less than 15 days to the end of June and English Premier League side, Chelsea find themselves in a really precarious situation that need urgent solution. The Blues need to raise money with player sales before June 30 in their desperate bid to avoid Financial Fair Play problems with UEFA.
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Exits before July will count in their 2022-23 season’s financial accounts and help offset the huge expenditure on signings in the last year, which is why before they can make moves to bring in their preferred players, they have to focus on exits first. One of the players expected to leave the Stamford Bridge is England midfielder, Mason Mount, who is of interest to Manchester United.
But Chelsea continue to insist that he would only leave for the right price (£70 million), a figure, Manchester United are unwilling to reach. The Red Devils may be able to sign Mount for nothing if they cannot agree a deal with Chelsea to sign the midfielder this summer. United have had one bid rejected already for the England international with a £40million offer falling £30m shy of the Blues’ valuation of the player.
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It is understood United are preparing a second bid of nearer £50m and that the Red Devils hope to strike an agreement around that figure. They certainly will not extend to £70m, and so if Chelsea stand strong over their academy graduate, they risk losing him for nothing. If Mount does not leave this summer, he will not sign a new contract and will depart as a free agent in 12 months’ time.
And that would allow United to snap up him up for free, although it would of course mean they miss out on an extra 12 months of his services. In his replacement, the Blues want Inter Milan midfielder, Nicolo Barella and already have a means of getting their target. Representatives of the two clubs met recently, to discuss the situation of Romelu Lukaku and they also touched on other subjects too, including Barella, Andre Onana, Kalidou Koulibaly, Trevor Chalobah and even possibly Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
While hoping to include the Italy international in the deal for Lukaku, the Nerazzurri are only interested in another loan move for the Belgian, hence, the EPL club is proposing a €60 million offer instead, is expected to be rebuffed. With Pochettino deciding to stick with Kepa as his first choice goalkeeper, it’s safe to rule out Onana from the equation, but the club remain firm on Barella, even if Moises Caicedo remains the main target.
It looks like the attack has already been settled with the expected arrival of Nicolas Jackson while Kai Havertz is said to be on his way out of the club. In terms of exit, a return back to Italy may be hard for Koulibaly, given his huge salary, unless he takes a huge pay cut with a return to Napoli an option while Inter Milan will inly be interested in a loan deal. A move to the Middle East could also be in the card for him with Al-Ittihad said to be preparing an offer.
For Moroccan winger, Hakim Ziyech, there’s a new report of an interest from Saudi Arabia and the player is said to be open to the move. Mateo Kovacic is tipped to join Manchester City to replace Ilkay Gundogan while the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Loftus-Cheek, Chalobah are expected to be playing for new clubs when the season kicks off.
Meanwhile…
Juventus are said to be eyeing young Italian midfielder, Cesare Casadei and will be looking to pick him up on a loan move. The former Inter midfielder was the best scorer at the U20 World Cup in Argentina and was named the Best Player of the Tournament.
According to reports from Italy, the Bianconeri are strongly interested in the 20-year-old who joined Chelsea from Inter for €20m last summer. Casadei spent the second part of 2022-23 at Reading in the English Championship, but the Blues reportedly want to test him in one of Europe’s first divisions in 2023-24.
Juventus are reportedly ready to welcome Casadei on loan but want an option to buy at the end of the season. The alternative is to include the Italian starlet in a swap deal for Dusan Vlahovic. Already, the club has confirmed the departure of 13 players this summer as Tiemoue Bakayoko’s spell at the club finally comes to an end.
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The French midfielder signed for £35million in 2017 yet only played 43 times as he was quickly moved out on loan to AC Milan, Napoli and former club Monaco. Last season saw Bakayoko’s second spell at Milan turn somewhat sour after the Italians opted against playing him for long spells, due to his lack of form and a clause obligating them to sign him permanently if he made a certain number of appearances.
Chelsea considered releasing the 28-year-old in January but have ended up keeping him on their books to the end of June, when his contract will expire. On Friday, the Blues released their retained list for the end of the 2022-23 season with Bakayoko’s release confirmed. The statement read: “We thank Tiemoue for his contribution during his season at Stamford Bridge.”
Several academy players are also moving on, including Dujon Sterling who has already signed for Rangers. Derrick Abu, Prince Adegoke, Nathan Baxter, Juan Familia-Castillo, Byran Fiabema, Joe Haigh, Henry Lawrence, Sam McClelland, Amari Thomas Silko, Ethan Wady and Jayden Wareham have also been released.
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