The Daily Mail has today published a story linking Chelsea with a new striker option for this summer – Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
The Everton forward joins a list of numbers 9s who are being connected with the Blues as they look to strengthen up top. Nicolas Jackson did well last season, but he can’t do it all on his own.
Benjamin Sesko looks like top of the list – but Arsenal are also interested, and we may struggle to sign him.
What makes Calvert-Lewin interesting is that he has just one year left on his contract, meaning Everton are more inclined to sell – although the England capped forward still won’t come cheap.
A major point against the signing
There has long been chatter about signing DCL before, with plenty of interest in previous summers, but the conclusion always comes back to the same thing – he’s worryingly injury prone.
That’s a special concern for Chelsea fans now after it feels like we’ve had a couple of campaigns consecutively where crucial injuries have really derailed our plans – and ultimately derailed our managers too. To be fair to him, this year just past saw him play very regularly – but then the problem became scoring rather than playing. He managed 8 league goals with a couple of painful dry spells – albeit playing as lone striker in a Sean Dyche team isn’t easy.
A fit and in form Calvert-Lewin really is a menace, and at his best he looked ready to play for any club in the league. But last year the endless niggles seemed to hurt his momentum even when he was on the pitch, and now it’s hard to see our sporting directors spending the money it would take to get him on a 27 year old with an increasingly worrying injury record.
