Chelsea would be robbing the bank if they were to get £40m for Tammy Abraham – Arsenal ought to beware.
While the general consensus was that Abraham would depart this summer, with the 23-year-old having not proven to be to the taste of Thomas Tuchel, few would have predicted that a move to the Emirates could be on the cards.
Yet, The Sun have placed Arsenal at the front of the queue for Abraham, with the Gunners thought to be mulling over an initial loan deal for the Englishman with a £40M obligation to buy.
That’d satisfy Mikel Arteta’s desire to bring a new striker into the fold, as well as fit into Arsenal’s recent drive to acquire home-grown talent, with Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale also being targeted, as per The Athletic.
Boxes would be ticked from Arsenal’s perspective, but make no mistake, Chelsea would be the real winners in this scenario, having received assurances that they’d bank £40m in exchange for a player Tuchel doesn’t need.
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Anyone who was paying attention to Tuchel’s Chelsea after his appointment back in January would have been keenly aware that he had no interest in giving Abraham minutes.
He was continually shunned from Chelsea’s match day squad, with Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, neither of whom appear to be viewed a as a natural centre-forward by their manager, being fielded in that role ahead of young Tammy.
With Chelsea seemingly in the market for a new striker, in particular Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland according to Sky Sports and others, Abraham would fall even further down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge.
Not to mention the feeling around Cobham at current appears to also be one of optimism over Albanian international Armando Broja, who returned from his loan spell with Vitesse Arnhem and was rewarded with a new five-year contract.
Broja is training with the first-team during their pre-season preparations and there doesn’t seem to be any pressing possibility of him being shipped back out on loan.
Abraham has been presented with the possibility of having his bit-part role stolen off of him by a 19-year-old who has never made a senior appearance for Chelsea.
You have to imagine, should that actually be the case, Abraham would be speaking to his representatives behind the scenes and accepting that he could need to leave the club he’s been with since he was seven.
If The Sun’s information is correct, Arsenal are waiting in the wings to pounce, with the loan-plus-obligation-to-buy Italian-esque deal the perfect way for the North London giants to afford the reported £40m fee.
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Arteta would have Abraham at his disposal for the duration of the 2021/22 campaign without having to pay a penny, with the £40m payment a matter for a later date.
What Arsenal ought to realise, however, is that while the idea of Chelsea agreeing to an initial loan looks appealing on paper, they’d have had their pants down if they were to pay £40m a year down the line.
Abraham’s biggest selling point is the *good* season he enjoyed with Frank Lampard at the helm. A total of 47 appearances, 18 goals and six assists – 164 minutes per goal, 123 minutes per goal contribution.
It’s the absolute minimum you’d expect from a striker featuring on a regular basis for a club within the top six of the Premier League. Irrespective of his age, it’s nothing to write home about.
Is it wrong to expect MORE from a club of Arsenal’s calibre? Especially considering they’ll surely be desperate to avoid missing out on European qualification for a second consecutive season.
Acknowledging that transfer fees are hugely inflated and a player having an English passport doesn’t help, do either justify a £40m expenditure on an average striker who is unwanted by a local and competitive rival?
Should Arsenal be facilitating the stacking of the cash in Roman Abramovich’s office as he looks to bankroll a move for arguably the best young player on the planet at current?
Is there any real positive to be taken out of a deal which would see Arsenal spend £40m on Tammy Abraham, bar the fact that they won’t have to do it for another year?
The Arsenal hierarchy will have been drawing up transfer plans long in advance of this summer – a pivotal summer for the club – so it’s hard to imagine how they’ve ended up salivating over Chelsea’s riff-raff.
The reality is that Arsenal have become a club which is willing to accept ‘good enough,’ which Abraham was, during a season which was a HUGE anomaly for Chelsea, with not a single player signed and a manager appointed who was determined to play the youth.
If Arsenal genuinely have this deal under consideration and are prepared to push forward with it, it’ll be further confirmation that those pulling the strings are willing to accept mediocrity for a once great football club.
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