Armando Broja’s future remains very uncertain, but one thing that does seem sure about it is that it won’t be at Chelsea.
The striker was given the first half of last season to show what he could do after returning from injury, be he wasn’t able to convincingly dislodge Nicolas Jackson from the team.
That meant come January he was seen as expendable, and Fulham took him on loan. They barely used him, causing his stock to fall even further.
Now we hear from Nizaar Kinsella at the BBC that Chelsea would accept “between £25m and £30m” for the forward, a significant drop off from the £50m that was being talked about in January. It sounds like they haven’t totally given up on the youth product’s potential though, as Kinsella notes they could include a “favourable buy back clause” or a “substantial sell on” to make up the difference between the £50m and whatever they actually end up getting.
An important sale for our summer plans
Broja basically sadly hasn’t convinced in his chances for Chelsea, despite having some great characteristics. We will never know what might have happened were it not for his ill timed injury. But his departure isn’t just coming now because he’s not up to our level. It’s also because, as a home grown player, he can be sold for “pure profit”.
His sale, preferably before the 30th June accounting cutoff for this season, could generate some really important funds to balance out the spending of the last few years which has us dangerously close to some financial fair play red lines.
If selling Broja gives us more scope to keep Trevoh Chalobah and Conor Gallagher, who have both proved their worth in the first team, we will grudgingly accept it. It’s probably best for his career too.
