Chelsea have been repeatedly linked with Brentford David Raya this season, so it’s interesting to hear that the Bees have opened this summer transfer window by buying a new stopper.
Mark Flekken joins from Freiburg after their brilliant season in the Bundesliga. They’ve spent £11m on him, so presumably he’s intended to be the number one. Teams like Brentford don’t waste that kind of money on backups. It indicates that they think it’s likely that they lose Raya this summer – or at least have a decent chance of it.
We don’t want to read into it too much, but it’s certainly a slight indication that Chelsea’s interest could lead to something concrete.
Transfermarkt value him at €25m, though they could potentially ask even more given there seems to be interest from several top clubs. The Evening Standard report Thomas Frank’s admission that Raya is for sale at £40m – we would expect the real price to be somewhere between the two.
