Chelsea refuse to pay up for Thomas Tuchel’s top transfer target

Thomas Tuchel won Chelsea a Champions League title last season, but the higher-ups at Stamford Bridge aren’t willing to purchase the striker he covets. 

If it were up to Thomas Tuchel then Erling Haaland would be moving from Borussia Dortmund to Chelsea this summer. Unfortunately for the Champions League-winning manager, the higher-ups at Stamford Bridge are unwilling to spend the cash required to acquire the prolific striker this summer.

Per The Evening Standard, Dortmund are willing to part with Haaland this summer but only for a transfer fee of £150 million. Chelsea would prefer to wait an additional season to try to add the 20-year-old striker. That’s when a £75 million release clause in Haaland’s contract will be activated. There’s no guarantee Chelsea would be the player’s first choice, but it’s evidently a risk the Blues are willing to take.

Instead of spending almost the entirety of their transfer budget on Haaland, the Blues instead want to focus on keeping one of their most important current players happy. A portion of those funds will be directed towards offering N’Golo Kante a new contract that will keep him at Chelsea for the remainder of his prime. Declan Rice also continues to be prominently linked with the Blues in the event that West Ham entertain the idea of letting him leave.

Is passing on Haaland now a mistake by Chelsea?

Tuchel doesn’t seem poised to kick up a fuss over the club’s lack of backing, but it could sow some discontent that will manifest later. Even so, it’s reasonable for Chelsea to balk at the idea of paying £150 million for any single player given the current state of finances in European football.

The mistake here by Chelsea is not engaging Dortmund in actual negotiations on the Haaland front. Conventional wisdom believes the Bundesliga club are willing to let Jadon Sancho move to Manchester United this summer, but will not let their prolific striker leave during the same window.

At the very least, Chelsea need to make a sizeable bid to see if they can change the German club’s opinion. That could allow the Blues to capture arguably the most exciting striker prospect in all of football.

It would also have the added benefit of complicating United’s negotiations on the Sancho front. Chelsea officials shouldn’t pass up the chance to make life more difficult for their English rivals.

In the end, the odds still favor Haaland playing one more season in Germany before moving on to more lucrative pastures next season. Chelsea’s unwillingness to pay Dortmund’s asking price now makes it very possible they will lose out on him altogether. That’s a tough pill to swallow for Tuchel and Chelsea fans.