The source who told us today about Chelsea’s confirmed interest in Castello Lukeba added an interesting detail which would explain the Blues’ desire to add yet another defender.
He claims that a sale of Tosin Adarabioyo is on the cards, with three clubs from the Premier League and Serie A monitoring his status.
Now while it would seem ridiculous to sell Tosin after just one season, it does fit quite nicely into the model created at Chelsea by these sporting directors.
As a player who arrived on a free transfer with no fee, a sale of Tosin would generate the mythical “pure profit” on the books for FFP and PSR that is so valuable. After a season of fairly regular play for Chelsea he could easily fetch £30m-40m, and that would go a long way for us.
Sale could create squad harmony issues as key pillar removed
There are downsides of course – these things are never quite as simple as a quick flip for cash paying off. For one thing, we’ve lamented so many times the lack of leadership and experience in this team, and in selling Tosin we’d be selling one of the veterans in the squad. He may only be 27, but he’s pretty much the oldest regular in the squad.
Not only that, we heard all the time how the former Man City man, known affectionately as “uncle” on the training ground as a joking reference to his relative senior citizen status.
You can see the evidence on matchday and in training videos for yourself. He has an important role to play behind the scenes in helping his young teammates, even when he’s not in the team.
So while we might support a sale if it bring in big money, we’d have to see Tosin replaced by someone with a similar experience and dressing room presence if it’s going to stop this team taking another step back.
