Liam Twomey has compared Andrey Santos to Noni Madueke as a sale which Chelsea have made purely for financial reasons.
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Liam Twomey’s piece for the Athletic this morning is all about Andrey Santos – and it opens with the line that the Brazilian is “this year’s Noni Madueke.”
It’s a comparison which makes perfect sense to Chelsea fans who follow the club and their transfer business closely. Just like Madueke a year ago, Santos is a player who picked up a lot of minutes for the first team last season.
He’s not the finished article or an elite player yet – but he’s got the potential to keep improving and be a really solid starter for Chelsea.
So why were each of them sold? Profit. Both were bought cheap, and Chelsea got offers (from Arsenal for Madueke and Man U for Santos) which allowed them to multiply their money.
Chelsea weaken their squad for profit again
There’s nothing wrong with some smart financial operation – but the problem is that in both cases the move makes profit at the cost of the footballing quality of the team. Madueke left the players brought in to replace him were other youngsters, rather than someone who was going to be an upgrade on the England international.
We suspect it will be the same for Santos, if we sign anyone at all in that position.
In other news…
It was the first day of preseason at Chelsea yesterday and we were delighted to see so many players back at Cobham – some for the first time – training under Xabi Alonso. Two people were missing, which raises some questions.
Two Serie A teams continue to be linked to Trevoh Chalobah, although the latest reports claim that only one of them has actually made an offer for him.
