The writing has been on the wall for Cesare Casadei for some time at Chelsea. The moment he was left off the group to tour the USA, his departure this summer has been guaranteed.
He always seemed like a strange buy – there had not been a huge amount of hype about him even from Italy, and he wasn’t a big name even for those people quite closely following youth football. He was among the first acquisitions in what would become a familiar category – players who are being bought as speculative assets by a club simply hoping they do well on loan.
Casadei only ended up playing a year on loan – 6 months at Reading and then 6 months with Leicester. He did ok in both spells, but never threated to break into the first team at Chelsea at any stage.
Now, with so many new players on the books, it’s time to move him on. The question is if we can make a profit.
Conditions of a move
The latest reporting from CalcioMercato in Italy says that the 21 year old is wanted by Fiorentina on loan with an option to buy. Given we paid €14m for him back in 2022, it’s hard to see us making much, if any money on him.
As always, the debate between the two clubs will come down to whether it’s a guaranteed purchase after the loan or one that the Italians can activate unliterally, or one based on certain conditions.
That’s what they will be discussing now. Chelsea have Casadei tied to a long contract and won’t be desperate to sell him by any means, especially if they feel he can boost his value more with a good season playing every week in Serie A.
Talks are ongoing, and we expect rapid progress this week.
