The stinging, bitter disappointment of finding out Chelsea had missed out on signing Michael Olise from Crystal Palace, as was revealed on Friday night, was quickly mitigated on Saturday by the announcement that the Blues had finally completed the transfer of Brazilian wonderkid Estevao Willian.
The dazzling 17 year old right winger has risen from nowhere to become the nation’s most prized player in his age group in the last year or so, and Chelsea have managed to jump the queue to sign “Messinho” before other clubs in Europe were able to get themselves in gear.
Even without Olise at the club, Willian joins a long list of wingers at Stamford Bridge. So how was he able to be persuaded to join? After all the last 18 months have seen fellow Brazilian imports Andrey Santos, Deivid Washington and Angelo Gabriel all join, with barely a minute to show for it between them.
But as the BBC article on the move points out, Estevao is different.
His entourage told the BBC that they have “no concerns whatsoever” about his path to the first team, with the plan being “to hit the ground running at Stamford Bridge one he arrives.”
“Extra-class” star not worried about a queue for minutes
“I would say that with Estevao it’s not a matter of whether this place is easier or not because he’s the kind of player that just goes there and gets things done. When you are an extra-class like him, that’s how you do it,” the head of the Palmeiras academy which produced him concluded.
It’s still not going to be easy – but given the €34m up front investment Chelsea are making ,you’d expect them to do all they can to slot their new gem in as soon as possible and structure the whole of next summer around his arrival and integrating him right away.
