Last summer, Chelsea had a stance – they wanted rid of Romelu Lukaku permanently, and wouldn’t consider a loan. They held out in that stance all summer, until they realised there was no interest in a transfer. Then they had no choice but to agree to loan him to Roma.
Now we can see the same thing happening time and again. Lewis Hall has gone on loan with an option to buy in the summer, to help Newcastle’s financial balancing act. Now Ian Maatsen has done a similar thing, heading to Dortmund.
West Ham are now apparently chasing Trevoh Chalobah, hoping for a similar arrangement, Football Insider’s exclusive yesterday claimed.
All this simply means that Chelsea get their money for sales further down the line, which restricts their ability to do business in January. That’s a negative, but getting these assets playing in the Premier League is certainly good for their value when we do eventually sell them.
