While Chelsea are still warning up in terms of the transfer market, there’s already plenty of stories circling about the future of players we’ve already got on the books.
Plenty of first team stars need to have their future decided ahead of next season, and there’s a lot of chatter about midfielder Andrey Santos at the top of the list.
Reporting yesterday was that new coach Enzo Maresca would take a look at him in preseason before deciding what to do with him, with a return to Strasbourg where he spent the second half of last season on loan a major possibility.
But there’s also a new entrant in the race, according to reports in L’Equipe – Porto.
The Portuguese cup winners like the look of the beefy Brazilian midfielder and are apparently keen on muscling to the front of the queue to loan him from us next year.
FC Porto are showing interest in Chelsea midfielder Andrey Santos, who is likely to spend the pre-season with Chelsea, reducing his chances of returning to Strasbourg next season.
{L'Equipe} pic.twitter.com/WX6nVf4w5P
— Vince™ (@Blue_Footy) May 30, 2024
A major warning from the past
The temptation is clear even among Chelsea fans to send Santos to Porto. They’re a bigger team than Strasbourg, and they play in Europe. He will be more visible there, playing in a more famous team and playing with a higher standard of player.
But last season shouldn’t be forgotten too quickly. Santos recovered it with a strong 6 months at Strasbourg to finish, but the first 6 months were totally wasted sitting on the bench at Nottingham Forest. That’s the risk of going to a stronger team, and we all remember that the last time we sent a player for a long to Porto (Malang Sarr) they barely played, and ended up in the B team more often than not.
The Portuguese side have a new coach and a new chairman, and there would certainly be an element of risk sending our player there when getting guaranteed minutes should be priority.
