For those of us following closely, Chelsea’s order of priority when it comes to strikers has been quite clear.
Victor Osimhen was first choice for a long time, and Ivan Toney had his moments towards the top of the list. But for various seasons their stars have faded, and now it’s clear that Benjamin Sesko is the man that the sporting directors want most of all.
But the problem with that is that a whole host of Europe’s top clubs feel the same way. What if Arsenal come in with an irresistible offer for the Leipzig man and leave Chelsea empty handed? We need backup options, and it’s pretty clear that one of them is going to be Dom Solanke.
The Cobham academy product has had to battle back from a slow start to his career, but his last couple of years at Bournemouth have shown him developing into the deadly attacker we always knew we had on our hands when he was tearing apart youth teams in a Chelsea shirt.
He got 19 Premier League goals last season despite playing for the Cherries, and there’s a sense he could do even better at a top side.
Transfer specialist Dean Jones reckons Chelsea would be among the sides most interested in signing him, and we agree.
A Premier League gem who could be on the move this summer
“Another striker Dominic Solanke being spoken about in The Athletic. He has a release clause of £65m in his contract and it can only be activated by certain clubs,” Jones wrote.
“They say that Solanke is being tracked across this season, but his release clause is limited to a select group of sides and the identity of those teams is undisclosed. He’s been brilliant and Bournemouth won’t want to lose him but the player’s head would be turned if there was serious interest in him. It wouldn’t surprise me if Chelsea again or Newcastle were to look in his direction.”
We wonder if Chelsea are one of those teams who can activate that clause? It’s a big sum, but for a proven Premier League scorer it’s not out of this world.
Bring him on.
He is a target man;He is superb in finishing chances.
He can create as well.
I would respectfully beg to differ. He’s an average finisher of chances (go check his xG versus his actuals and they’re roughly equal). And 65m would be a ridiculous sum to pay for him! Once again there is an insidious “homegrown lad” bias at work here. There’s no version of a future in which Chelsea re-enters the Champions League picture and competes for league titles that includes Dominic Solanke as our #9. Sorry, he’s just nowhere near good enough for that kind of money.
Solanke, no way. Average at best and nowhere near the level Chelsea require to compete at the top.