Athletic explains why Chelsea still want Garnacho even with 7 players competing for 2 spots

Alejandro Garnacho’s agent was spotted at the Chelsea game last night, adding fuel to the fires burning in the papers this week connecting Chelsea with transfer interest in the Manchester United winger.

But Chelsea are deeper in terms of wingers and attacking midfielders than anywhere else on the pitch – most of them signed up recently with no prospect of leaving anytime soon anywhere. Meanwhile they have no reliable alternate striker, a lack of cover in central midfield and are on the verge of selling their second choice left back.

So why are they pursuing another winger? That’s the exact question Simon Johnson has set out to answer in his article for the Athletic today.

He’s written that the key factor in all this is the potential “worst case scenario” over Mykhailo Mudryk.

The Ukraine winger tested positive for banned substance Meldonium and has been suspended while the results of his B sample are tested. He will be facing a “lengthy suspension” barring the microscopic chance of a lab mistake being proven. So while it’s “worst case,” it’s also pretty likely.

Chelsea still face unbalanced squad

But Mudryk has been no more than a squad player – and we’ve barely missed him since he’s been gone. He was behind Jadon Sancho, Pedro Neto and even Joao Felix in the list of players getting minutes on the left wing. All that’s happened is that youngsters like Tyrique George have been given his share of minutes. And that’s actually a pretty popular move with fans.

Then you’ve got Estevao Willian arriving in the summer to add even more wing depth.

Johnson’s argument is that the club still want a player who prefers the left. If that’s the case, they’ve really bungled the squad construction. Even without Mudryk, they’re going to have Neto, Noni Madueke, Willian, George, Sancho, Felix and Garnacho competing for 2 places in the team.

Who do you sell to make this work?