According to the reports of Christian Falk, the Blues are interested to sign Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen. Tah was one of those players who were expected to leave their clubs this window. But at the end he stayed for the season.
Tah was Xabi Alonso’s one of the key players behind his success across all competitions last season. The German defender have already won 3 trophies in the last 12 months for Leverkusen. It includes the Bundesliga title, DFB-Pokal and the DFL-Super cup.
However, they failed to convert their success into a continental treble. As they lost against Atalanta in the Europa League finals. It also ended their record breaking 51 game unbeaten streak.
Chelsea finding a replacement for Thiago Silva
Thiago Silva departed from the club earlier this summer. He said goodbye to the fans as a Chelsea legend after his 4 year service at the Stamford Bridge . In his presence the Blues won their second ever Champions League title after 9 years of wait. They will definitely feel the absence of such a experienced defender.
So, the the Blues manager Maresca is now left with 4 central defenders in his side after the arrival of Tosin Adarabioyo on a free transfer from Fulham. The other three are- Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill, Benoit Badiashile.
Fofana and Colwill are doing a good job as a defensive duo right now. But the Blues management thinks it would not be great enough to compete in the highest stage. As all of them are still young and lacks experience. To solve that problem they will be looking for a solid defender.
Earlier this month, it was reported in Germany that Chelsea are interested in the 28-year-old Tah as a replacement of Silva. While writing for Substack, trusted German journalist Falk written,
Chelsea were always interested in Tah. They have a dossier on the centre-back and have followed his whole career.
We have seen Chelsea spending loads of money in the past 2-3 years. So, it will not be an astonishing scenario for the watchers to see Chelsea signing another player for a huge amount of money. But, in this case it seems different
Can the Blues afford Tah?
Chelsea have seriously analyzing their wage structure now. Their current squad includes of 30 professional footballers. Currently Chelsea’s wage bill is estimated at around £146.64 million per year, which is the fourth highest in the Premier League. Where Club captain Reece James earns the most(£250,000-per-week) from the London based club.
So, they were forced to make a decision regarding the salary as they will not be paying more than £70,000-a-week to new players. But it is less likely for Tah to accept such a low salary. When you perform so well in the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich is always there to sign you. The Bavarians were very close to sign Tah this season but the negotiations failed at the latter stages.
However, Bayern still wants him and are ready to sign Tah as a free agent next season. And they are offering Tah a whopping £230,000-250,000 per-week salary. Regarding the sitaution Falk mentioned in his article,
Because of the financial pressure the Premier League now also feels, they made a decision internally that new players should just earn £70,000-a-week. So, you see, that’s perhaps a third of the amount Bayern would be prepared to pay for him, so it will be very hard for Chelsea to get Jonathan Tah next summer.
However, we never know what happens in the future. If Tah thinks of changing his surroundings and wants to play in the Premier League, we can see him in the Blues shirt in near future. If Chelsea decides to higher the Salary deal for Tah, we can see a great battle between two European giants for a solid defender next season.
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