Christian Falk is one of Germany’s top insiders when it comes to transfers, and we’re always curious to see what he has to say on the subject of the big stories over there.
A player who was widely expected to move this summer, but ended up staying put, was Jonathan Tah. The Bayer Leverkusen central defender was key to their absurd success last season, becoming a key player for Xabi Alonso.
When you play that well in Germany and help steal the title off Bayern Munich we all know what comes next – they sign you on a free transfer. And that still looks likely to happen next summer when his contract runs out.
But this summer, with a year left, was a great chance for anyone to snap up a bargain, and according to Falk, Chelsea were almost that team.
Blues put their foot down over wage demands
“Chelsea were always interested in Tah. They have a dossier on the centre-back and have followed his whole career, but because of the financial pressure the Premier League now also feels, they made a decision internally that new players should just earn £70,000-a-week (£3.64m/€4.3m a year),” Falk explained in his Daily Briefing for CaughtOffside.
“So, you see, that’s perhaps a third of the amount Bayern would be prepared to pay for him, so it will be very hard for Chelsea to get Jonathan Tah next summer.”
Chelsea’s wage structure is clearly something they’re taking seriously now, and this is a great example of that. We can’t think of many better, experienced options who could have come in for a relatively cheap fee and improved out defence.
Sticking to a wage structure is important too – but couldn’t we have done without one attacking midfielder and added the Germany international instead?