Some things in life are certainties: death, taxes, and Chelsea buying some of Europeâs brightest talent only to loan them out, sell them on and never see them play for the first team.
And the depressing reality at Stamford Bridge is that a lot of these offloads arenât just promising talents - theyâre world class talents. Just look at Kevin de Bruyne who had a stellar season for Wolfsburg last year and is Manchester Cityâs latest mega-money signing. Chelsea got £18m for that particular youth product, whilst the Germans received £54m for him. Even if youâre coming at it from a purely financial point of view, rather than a footballing one, thatâs surely still a mistake.
And that pattern looks like it might be repeating.
Everton paid big money to take Romelu Lukaku to Goodison Park on a permanent deal, but now if the Toffees are to sell him, he will cost much more than that.
But itâs not just the transfer fee that will depress Chelsea fans. Just like the De Bruyne case, it wasnât just a blunder in financial terms, but it was also a blunder in footballing terms, as this stat shows.
Chelseaâs Diego Costa has been misfiring this season, and their squad depth is not looking as robust as it could do. The squad left behind by Jose Mourinho was, of course, a team of champions, but the striking options have been pretty anonymous -Â Radamel Falcao and an underused Loic Remy in reserve. Reinforcements are thin on the ground for Guus Hiddink.
Lukaku is the Premier Leagueâs top scorer with 15 goals already, whilst Chelsea sit four points off the relegation zone. As that stat suggests, Lukaku has been prolific for the last four seasons, bettering every other Premier League player bar Aguero, and so his form clearly isnât temporary. Such consistency is very impressive for a 22-year-old striker.
And given that Lukaku is so young, surely letting him go must rank as one of Chelseaâs biggest transfer blunders - right up there with paying £50m for Fernando Torres!
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