The first whispers of Chelsea interest in Aaron Anselmino came late on Wednesday night, with sources in Argentina reporting that the Blues were closing in on the young defender.
That was backed up the next morning by top insider Fabrizio Romano, and now we’ve got an Athletic piece adding even more depth and detail.
Simon Johnson is not the kind of writer who just pumps out transfer stories for clicks – he’s well connected at the club and we take anything he says pretty seriously. His report on Anselmino is the definitive one so far for Chelsea fans wanting to know more about the player and more about what stage their club’s interest has reached.
For example, the reports were initially that a fee was already agreed: Johnson says that Chelsea are “negotiating over the fee,” and that the reports of a £14.1m initial offer with a £3.1m in add ons have “not been confirmed by Chelsea” – which doesn’t mean they’re not true, of course.
Johnson confirms we’ve started “initial discussions” with Boca, and that this is in order to “beat any potential competition.”
The 19 year old is only just making his first steps in the senior game, but interest is only going to grow as he racks up more senior appearances.
A logical next step
One thing that isn’t mentioned here is what the plan is for Anselmino if we do sign him. There’s quite the stock of central defenders around the first team now with Tosin Adarabioyo having already signed this summer. The word “Strasbourg” isn’t mentioned in this piece, but it’s a natural assumption to make that a teenager from South American might benefit from a spell adapting to European football before he hits the Premier League.
We will be following this story closely to see what happens next…