Ben Jacobs’ exclusive column for Si Phillips’ Substack covers all sorts of topics, but one notable part was some interesting detail on Chelsea’s reported interest in Tosin Adarabioyo, who becomes a free agent this summer.
There are going to be a lot of clubs interested in him, given he’s just 26 and has a lot of Premier League experience. But it seems that the defender has laid out his demands for any team interested in signing him this summer:
“Adarabioyo, I am told, wants European football and to start 30+ Premier League games,” Jacobs writes.
He adds that Chelsea have yet to make an offer, although we wouldn’t worry on that front. The player will want to see all his options laid out before he chooses one, so there is no rush to get an offer on the table just yet. We need to figure out the rest of our season before we start looking too far ahead.
Reasonable demands
Those are two very reasonable and sensible demands for a player to make, especially one who is clearly managing his career quite cleverly. Despite being very highly rated from a young age, he made the move to Fulham at the right moment where he could build his Premier League experience up by playing every week.
Timing his contract to run down at this moment was also savvy move, meaning he can have his choice of clubs right when he’s at his peak age for a big move. Chelsea are close to being able to offer him European football, and the departure of Thiago Silva should open up the chance for 30 Premier League games. But there’s no denying that when all our defenders are fit (as they hopefully will be at the start of next season) there is a lot of competition at the back.
