David Ornstein has just broken the news that Chelsea accepted a bid “above £35m” for Ian Maatsen from Aston Villa.
Yesterday he spoke on a podcast where he claimed that our interest in Villa striker Jhon Duran could accelerate once the Maatsen deal was done – it seems likely both deals have been agreed in principle so that we can each buy the other’s player.
You can see Law speaking in the clip embedded here:
We were curious in general about how Chelsea and Villa would structure these deals, given both want a player the other has, both is worried about overspending FFP, and both is willing to sell the player in question.
A swap seemed like it might work well, but perhaps keeping the deals separate, allowing both parties to register the full sum of the sale while spreading the cost of their respective purchases through the length of the deal, actually benefits both more.