Nizaar Kinsella has moved from the Evening Standard’s Chelsea beat to the BBC, meaning he doesn’t get as many Blues exclusives as he used to, but he’s still out there with the occasional gem, as we see this afternoon with his report on a new target for the Blues.
He claims that Strasbourg, our sister club under the BlueCo umbrella, are chasing young English full back Archie Brown, currently playing in Belgium with Gent.
His club are asking for £7m, while Strasbourg, inevitably, want to pay less than that. It remains to be see what deal can be worked out, but if Chelsea’s scouts concur with Strasbourg’s on their evaluation, we could easily see the purse strings loosened by the Blues ownership. A couple of million for them is a lot less significant for them than it is for Strasbourg, and it’s in their interest to get their sister club as strong as possible.
An interesting character with a unique route to the top
Brown is a really interesting character, having made his way to the top via a very unusual route.
Born in Birmingham, the 22 year old played his youth football for Derby County, before leaving to play in Switzerland as a teenager.
After shining for Lausanne Sport, he was bought last summer by Gent, where he really impressed this season, leading to a call up to the England Under 20s earlier this year.
Having shown he can perform on the continent and adapt to new countries, it’s no wonder Strasbourg are interested, and of course as Kinsella points out, this would bring him into the BlueCo ecosystem, whether that’s with the explicit intention of him one day coming to the mothership at Chelsea or not.
Attempts to sign Brazilian talent Pedro Lima for the French side failed – we wonder if that will mean extra effort on this front?