Matt Law is consistently a great source for Chelsea news in general, but as an Aston Villa fan with connections there too, he’s particularly good on the subject of dealings between the two clubs. This summer there’s already been two major points of contact – one over Villa’s backup striker Jhon Duran, whom Chelsea want, and one over Ian Maatsen, the Blues defender heading the other way.
Today it’s the latter case that Law is reporting on, and his news is basically that the deal is almost done: “Aston Villa are confident of completing the signing of Ian Maatsen for £37.5m from Chelsea – they hope to finalise it in the next 48 hours,” he Tweeted earlier this afternoon.
Maatsen is at the Euros with the Netherlands, and they play tonight against France. But that hasn’t stopped Chelsea and Villa sorting out the deal.
The left back only has to agree personal terms (which can easily be done remotely) and will then presumably use tomorrow’s day of rest after the match against France tonight to conduct any medical tests necessary.
What comes next for Chelsea
While it has been made clear that there isn’t any crazy urgency for Chelsea to get deals done early in the summer for PSR reasons, it will still be nice for them to bank some cash and tick this first major sale off their list.
Maatsen’s departure has seemed inevitable for a while, and getting close to £40m for him will probably be seen as a success. It may have no bearing at all on potential incomings, but it may also free up manpower resources to get some lingering deals over the line – moves for Estevao Willian and Michael Olise seem to be moving slowly, and could use an injection of momentum to get them over the line.