Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 29,474]

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Edited Wednesday at 15:26 by Vesper

[Vesper 29,474]

Carney Chukwuemeka feels key to Borussia Dortmund’s future – but can they afford to keep him?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6263808/2025/04/09/chukwuemeka-dortmund-Chelsea-barcelona/

It is a sign of how strange Borussia Dortmund’s season has been that as they travel to Barcelona, and despite barely having played to date, Carney Chukwuemeka suddenly seems so important.

Chukwuemeka arrived on loan from Chelsea in the winter transfer window but, owing to illness and injury, the 21-year-old midfielder has only been fit enough to play 135 Bundesliga minutes in the period since. He started his first game for the club on Saturday, playing 70 minutes of the 4-1 away win over Freiburg, and had a profound impact.

In possession, he was cutting and purposeful with his passes, and typically bold with the ball at his feet. But he was rugged in the tackle, too, and physically commanding. Chukwuemeka created a flurry of first-half chances, scored with a deflected shot from the edge of the box in the second, then set Julian Brandt free to create Dortmund’s third goal for Serhou Guirassy.

It was deeply impressive. At the end of the weekend, Chukwuemeka earned his first nomination to Kicker’s coveted Elf des Tages, their team of the weekend. Given that he has had so little chance to develop chemistry with his team-mates and that eighth-placed Dortmund are hardly enjoying a vintage season, that is quite the accolade.

And this is a strange situation.

 

Chukwuemeka scores his first goal for Dortmund against Freiburg (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Chukwuemeka has been a virtual bystander since he arrived. But he has also played in short, rich doses that have shown his talent and pointed to a future direction for Dortmund. It helps that he so clearly fits the house style — that he is such a Dortmund player.

The Westfalenstadion crowd wants to be moved by the football it sees on the pitch below and Chukwuemeka, as a blend of slashing technique, craft and ambition on the ball, suits that mood, conforming to all the local ideals while also helping the side to be much progressive — not to get stuck in second or third gear, but to play football at a pace that makes the terraces quiver.

Tactically, as Saturday showed, many Dortmund players can profit from having Chukwuemeka in their midfield.

Karim Adeyemi and Maximilian Beier both had first-half chances arising directly from the loanee’s ability to find gaps in Freiburg’s defensive and midfield lines. Brandt, who has suffered through an extremely difficult season, often appearing bereft of confidence, gave one of his best performances in recent months.

Brandt showed improvement a week ago, in the 3-1 win over Mainz, but he seemed liberated by having Chukwuemeka alongside him and not compelled, as is so often his way and his weakness, to overplay.

There is some overlap between their respective abilities and so taking some of the creative responsibility away from Brandt, particularly in deeper positions, splits the defensive attention he faces and focuses him more precisely. It was notable how often he received passes in space at Europa-Park Stadion and how he was regularly running towards Freiburg’s back four.

 

Chukwuemeka has brought the best out of his Dortmund team-mates (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Recently, Niko Kovac has moved away from the 4-2-3-1 he initially used upon taking charge, employing a 3-5-2 instead. Felix Nmecha has now recovered from the knee injury he suffered in January and is set to return to the No 6 role he was playing with such distinction in the late autumn. A central three of Nmecha, Chukwuemeka and Brandt certainly seems balanced and capable of extracting the best from each of those players.

But perhaps nothing seems as valuable as Chukwuemeka’s personality.

Prior to Freiburg, one of the characteristics of his impact across those cameo performances — particularly in the 20 minutes against Union Berlin and, a few weeks later, RB Leipzig — was his capacity to come on, demand the ball and simply play. It often felt like a tonic.

That may sound like a vague virtue, but Dortmund have received a lot of criticism this season — rightly — and that has bred neuroses throughout their team. Kovac is dealing with fearful, inhibited players, some of whom seem preoccupied with not making mistakes.

Whether because of his age, his personality or simply because he has not been at the club long enough, Chukwuemeka has not been infected by that willingness to hide in plain sight. After the Freiburg game, he told reporters with a shrug that he “hadn’t really thought about his performance in the first half” and that he had just played by feel.

Also speaking in Breisgau, Adeyemi described his new team-mate as a “chilled out guy, a street footballer”, with Pascal Gross also praising Chukwuemeka as “a superb footballer” who “plays with great confidence”. Sebastian Kehl, Dortmund’s sporting director, admitted that while “Carney is still not at 100 per cent, he is always capable of making a difference”.

 

Chukwuemeka tussles with Union Berlin’s Tim Skarke in February (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)

Within this context, it’s easy to see Chukwuemeka less as a midfielder and more a heavy dose of vitamin B. Someone capable of jolting Dortmund to life with changes of rhythm, but also being more generally restorative and beneficial to the squad’s mood. Having a player to whom the game comes so easily rarely hurts. Especially not at Dortmund, where it has often looked so, so hard this season.

Still: 135 minutes. These are big conclusions to draw from so little playing time.

Furthermore, unless Dortmund requalify for the Champions League next season, it is difficult to imagine how they might afford the fee of around €50million (£42.9m; $54.7m) that would make Chukwuemeka’s loan permanent. At the moment, he is due to return to Chelsea even before the FIFA Club World Cup starts in June.

Rather like the situation with Jadon Sancho and Ian Maatsen last season, who were so good on loan in the second half of the season but ultimately out of financial reach, it’s perfectly possible that Borussia Dortmund and Chukwuemeka will both be starting again in the summer.

They work together and they seem to need each other. Whether they can stay together is another matter entirely.

[Vesper 29,474]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/jadon-sancho-Chelsea-man-utd-35017630

Chelsea are ready to pay Manchester United to get out of their obligation to sign Jadon Sancho, it has been claimed. The on-loan star made a fast start to life at Stamford Bridge, but his output in recent months had put a permanent deal in jeopardy.

Under the terms of their loan deal for the winger, a Premier League finish of 14th or higher would require the Blues to fork out up to £25million to sign Sancho permanently. However, the agreement included a clause whereby they could pay United a seven-figure sum to back out.

Sancho has three goals and five assists for Chelsea this season, but none of either since January 4. He also set up two goals in a Conference League win against Heidenheim in November, but wasn't able to contribute a goal or assist in the 83 minutes he played across two knockout legs against FC Copenhagen.

[TheHulk 2,048]

 

[mkh 376]

1 hour ago, TheHulk said:

 

Osimhen & Isak 🙂‍↕️

[Mhsc 986]

20 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

We won’t be signing a player of that age on a 7 year deal though. Not a chance. 4 or 5 year deal maybe.

Would rather give that guy £88m in wages over 5 years and know we might get some actual bang for our buck in the present than persist with guys like Jackson and potentially Delap or Tel in the hope they might do something in 2/3 years.

 

That was the rationale for many of our woeful big money forward signings though. They all hampered us for years afterwards and were very difficult situations to get out of.

At the risk of going through this entire debate again, it is very possible (perhaps even probable) we will just end up with a very expensive player who doesn't do a lot for us, and end up in an even worse situation than we're in now. And then we will look back and condemn the sporting directors for blowing everything on a player with one elite season in his career, persistent injury problems, and who's main motivation is openly and transparently exclusively about maximising his wealth.

I think the argument for someone like Delap is not that they might be able to do it in 2-3 years but that a guy who scores 12 PL goals (so far) for Ipswich, massively outperforming his xG scoring from basically nothing, if placed in a team that creates way more opportunities he maybe can already do a 20 PL goal season. And at a much lower risk to our ability to succeed over the next few years if it goes wrong.

From the expensive options, Isak would be my pick, at least he has shown he can do it in PL and there is something to be said for the strategy of aggressively going after elite PL players as they emerge no matter the cost (a strategy that back in time did Man Utd very well, and more recently Man City did really well).

[Vesper 29,474]

6 hours ago, TheHulk said:

 

and this is from an owner who signed off (with the Dodgers), along with the other owners, on a 10 year contract for 700m usd for one player (Ohtani) who turned 30 years old 6 months later

(the largest total contract in sports (all sports) history at the time, and the only one now larger is only 65 million usd more, (Juan Soto with the New York Mets), BUT it is for 15 years, so far less per season)

Edited Wednesday at 22:37 by Vesper

[OneMoSalah 8,840]

2 hours ago, Mhsc said:

That was the rationale for many of our woeful big money forward signings though. They all hampered us for years afterwards and were very difficult situations to get out of.

At the risk of going through this entire debate again, it is very possible (perhaps even probable) we will just end up with a very expensive player who doesn't do a lot for us, and end up in an even worse situation than we're in now. And then we will look back and condemn the sporting directors for blowing everything on a player with one elite season in his career, persistent injury problems, and who's main motivation is openly and transparently exclusively about maximising his wealth.

I think the argument for someone like Delap is not that they might be able to do it in 2-3 years but that a guy who scores 12 PL goals (so far) for Ipswich, massively outperforming his xG scoring from basically nothing, if placed in a team that creates way more opportunities he maybe can already do a 20 PL goal season. And at a much lower risk to our ability to succeed over the next few years if it goes wrong.

From the expensive options, Isak would be my pick, at least he has shown he can do it in PL and there is something to be said for the strategy of aggressively going after elite PL players as they emerge no matter the cost (a strategy that back in time did Man Utd very well, and more recently Man City did really well).

It was but I think now it is abundantly clear we have to go for this type of forward signing as opposed to a Delap or Jackson profile of player - young, bit of potential, needing room to grow yet.

Same with a CB and a GK. Maybe even a left winger… If that means we have to spend a bit more on salary and risk it, then we have to do that. We need some guys who are proven and going to deliver from day 1.  They genuinely tend to want bigger salaries and the very good one’s have plenty of options so if we want to get players of this ilk and ever become a top top team, then we need to bite the bullet eventually. Just look at that DailyMail article above this post, this is going to be the case for every elite player/elite youngster when we have real competition for them.

Agree on Isak but generally think he will be waiting for a Real Madrid/Barcelona. Unless Liverpool throw a fortune at Newcastle in the summer if they sell Nunez to Saudi.

This project 2030 and transfer approach from BlueCo is going to continue to kill this clubs chance of ever becoming a regular trophy winning side again IMO. 

Edited Wednesday at 23:09 by OneMoSalah

[Pizy 18,552]

Our hierarchy are probably now looking to current PSG as our blueprint. Sold or let go of all their huge name superstars and brought in a bunch of young, hungry talents who are all blossoming into a world class unit together. A team that can grow together over a long period. 

We can almost 100% rule out signing the like of Osimhen because we still won’t go near his wage demands. Or anyone else in that upper echelon. We simply won’t be a club that goes for ready made stars any longer. What we WILL and have already done is spend insane money on teenaged talents in hopes that some will turn into the next world class superstar. 

We may not like the strategy but it IS a strategy. The issue I and most of us have is that we desperately need to supplement these young talents with proven quality in specific positions which this board has refused to do.

Buy all the young talents you want everywhere else, but at striker, CB, and keeper we HAVE to bring in proven players who are 25+ if we have even a prayer of taking a big step forward next season.

[Vesper 29,474]

5 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Our hierarchy are probably now looking to current PSG as our blueprint. Sold or let go of all their huge name superstars and brought in a bunch of young, hungry talents who are all blossoming into a world class unit together.

they bought players who were clearly going to be world class (for the most part) or already were (at least IMHO) or at minimum were rock solid

It is why I said PSG was the death of Vesper's wish list

examples:  

Gianluigi Donnarumma (signed on a free when he was 22yo)
Matvey Safonov (would be our best GKer if we had him atm)
Willian Pacho 
Nuno Mendes 
Achraf Hakimi  
Joao Neves  
Vitinha  
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia 
Bradley Barcola 
Désiré Doué 
Ousmane Dembélé  

Gabriel Moscardo (out on loan atm)

 

Hugo Ekitiké (has exploded in value at Frankfurt, the one stupid sale they did lately)

Xavi Simons (from PSV by way of Barca, sold to RB Leipzig for a huge profit)

 

Warren Zaïre-Emery is a PSG youth product

 

 

[mkh 376]

🟡João Felix has been offered to Galatasaray the player will leave AC Milan at the end of the season and has already been linked with Galstasaray in the past.

Joao Felix has also been following Galatasaray on Instagram for some time, so he at least seems to have sympathy for the club.

(via@_samiyenhaber)

🔵According to journalist Christian Falk:

Chelsea are interested in Konstantinos Karetsas and are already in contact with his advisor.

Chelsea are also prepared to pay the €40 million demanded by GENK to secure the "wonderkid" Konstantinos Karetsas.

Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Bologna, Udinese, Dortmund and Bayern have been scouting the Greek international for some time.

🔴Chelsea handed Jamie Gittens transfer green light as 'movement' made for Borussia Dortmund star.

Chelsea have received an update on Borussia Dortmund star Jamie Gittens amid reports of a potential return to Stamford Bridge.

The forward attended academies at Chelsea FC Reading and Manchester City and has risen to prominence in 2024/25, mainly through his performances in the Champions League. Gittens scored his first two goals in Dortmund's 3-0 victory over Club Brugge in September.

Gittens has been with the
German club for nearly five years
since leaving Manchester City's
academy in September 2020.

After spending time in
Dortmund's youth system,
Gittens has gone on to reach
a century of competitive
appearances for the senior side,
contributing G/A 17/12.

(via@Bild)

[Strike 7,315]

10 hours ago, TheHulk said:

 

Seems like Delap is also going off the table. Something like Gyokeres to Arsenal, Delap to Man U, Isak to Liverpool and Jonathan David to Chelsea could happen 

[mkh 376]

Chelsea target Dean Huijsen on his future:

"I have a contract until 2030 and I have an exit clause. 

"How much is my exit clause? The truth is, I don't really understand it myself," Huijsen laughed.

"Do a lot of teams want me? I don't know," Huijsen said before being pushed directly on interest from Madrid.

"Madrid is a big team, and every player wants to play as much as possible. Do I want to play for Real Madrid? I don't know. We'll see. A friend called me and said, 'Go to Real Madrid'. I laughed. 'What am I supposed to say?'. Another friend is also pushing Barcelona."

[Special Juan 27,622]

He's off to Madrid, the moment they started uttering their name it's over

[mkh 376]

Chelsea are leading the race to sign Sunderland midfielder Jobe Bellingham (19) ahead of many clubs, such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Brighton, and Crystal Palace.

(FrazFletcher)

 

🔴The window could be a disaster for us!!!

Delap is good but is he the striker to win us titles....🤔

Kelleher no thanks.

Balde from Sevilla and Marc Guehi😒

Gittens totally not what we need and isn't pulling up trees at BVB either.

Werner,Havertz,Nkunku,Sancho they have all dominated and put up numbers in the Bundesliga Gittens has not!!!!

Jobe Bellingham the last thing we need now is the hyped brother of Jude!!!

Edited Thursday at 11:31 by mkh

[mkh 376]

According to the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" 
Cesc Fàbregas is a hot coaching candidate at RB Leipzig.

"Fabregas is an innovative coach with great ambitions and is loved by his team.
team, describes Jatin Dietl, Area Manager Italy at Transfermarkt.

has many fresh ideas and is highly appreciated by the club and the fans.

In the otherwise results-oriented Italian soccer, it is not easy for a coach to play in a team that is coach to play risky attacking football in a team that is fighting to avoid relegation to play risky attacking football".

😮‍💨😮‍💨

Edited Thursday at 12:45 by mkh

[gdlk 277]

Maybe in few years.. Let him develope more 

[Vesper 29,474]

2 hours ago, mkh said:

Balde from Sevilla

has significant bust potential

Disasi and Badi 2.0

hell no

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