Ethan Ampadu and Romeo Lavia both joined new clubs last season. Ampadu leaving Chelsea for Championship team Leeds United and Lavia joining Chelsea from a relegated Southhampton. After completing one season at their new clubs, the story looks very different for them both. Chelsea have spent more than a billion pounds since Toddy Boehly took over from Roman Abramovich and they have signed talented players. The majority of these players have dropped off in transfer value since signing for the club, Romeo Lavia is one of them, conversely for Ethan Ampadu, a move away from Stamford Bridge has given a new hope to his career and is more valuable than Lavia today. Let’s look at the two situations one by one.
Ethan Ampadu and his ascension at Leeds
Ethan Ampad at 17 made his Chelsea debut and was seen as a future defensive superstar. He joined Chelsea from Exter city at a price of 2.5 million pounds in 2017. He made 12 senior appearances for the club in total. After going on loan to Italy and Germany, the young Welsh defender was sold to Leeds for 7 million pounds. He played for the club in every league game, cementing himself as one of the best defenders in the league last season. It was due to his performances at DM and CB last year he was in the EFL Team of the year. After having a great campaign last season, he looks to have finally found a home. He totally deserves to play for a club in the top division. Having revived his career, he has shown that he can be a defender at the top. His transfer value has escalated to 15.6 million pounds. 3 million pounds more than Romeo Lavia, the then 19 year old who was brought in for 58 million pounds.
Romeo Lavia’s first season at Chelsea
Chelsea’s business in the past few transfer markets has been questionable. Signing players who play similar roles, with all of them being unproven commodities in the league. In Romeo Lavia’s case, Injury also played a big role in his game time being just 33 minutes last season. He suffered 4 injuries, which kept him out for a total of 282 days, missing 43 games last season. His transfer value after playing just one game last year has dropped off significantly to 12.6 million pounds. With Chelsea signing Dewsbury-hall, in a midfield that already had two 100 million signings, getting minutes could become a challenge for Lavia. Although, against City he looked really good, confident receiving the ball with him facing his goal. His ability to glide pass the opposition press and make brilliant tackles is present on the Billion-pound bench. He was a joy to watch at Southhampton, at Chelsea he has barely played. He deserves more gametime and looking at players like him on the bench at Chelsea, it makes you wonder if Ampadu would’ve stayed, he would’ve suffered a similar fate.
What does this mean for Chelsea?
Chelsea needs to solve this problem, players who are labelled as busts at Chelsea often end up becoming generational talents elsewhere. Ampadu is not Salah or KDB but he is destined to become a starting defender in the league one day. Being impatient with existing talent and buying the shiniest toy every transfer window is Chelsea’s biggest problem. They have a ton of players to choose from, and almost all of them are going to be great players someday but because of Chelsea’s impatience, they’ll end up selling most of them before they start to come into their own.
A trusted source on ChelseaNews.comFor more football updates, make sure to follow us on:
