Three reasons Chelsea haven’t made £40m offer for proven Premier League player

Chelsea’s search for a striker doesn’t seem any closer to a conclusion.

The Blues have been plugging away all summer working on different players, but nothing has yet come to fruition beyond their pickup of Barcelona youngster Marc Guiu, who had his release clause paid last month.

Simon Phillips today has an interesting update on one situation on his Substack however.

He says that the Blues are still watching Ivan Toney – a player we know they’ve been interested in for some time. However there are some complications, not least of all Aston Villa’s increasing interest. They already have Ollie Watkins as their first choice striker, and Chelsea target Jhon Duran as his backup, but they are apparently considering Toney too.

Internal issues still blocking deal

The other issues are internal. For one, Phillips points out that “not everyone at the club would be on board with making the move to sign him.” We can see why, as he certainly breaks the template that our signings have been in. He’s an established player in his prime who will command big wages and have little sell-on value. That’s a long way off our dream signing.

However Phillips also speculates that the England capped striker could be available for £40m. That’s a pretty handy fee. The priority remains selling Armando Broja and Romelu Lukaku, and if we can get both of them off the books for a decent fee, we would expect Toney to be among those targeted by the co-sporting directors.

They’ve shown they’re willing to break the mould when a unique opportunity comes up, and they may consider a proven Premier League goalscorer in his prime for £40m a unique opportunity.

Stage one is sales however, and there’s not much movement there yet.