Take the cash hit, Chelsea or it could be an expensive miss
CHELSEA rarely get big decisions wrong – but they’re going to have to bite the bullet over Antonio Rudiger.
The defender is digging in his heels over a pay rise, holding firm over £10million-a-year wage demands – £3m more than the club are willing to pay.
But if the Blues have anything about them, they’ll cough up because otherwise they will be staring at a crisis at the heart of their defence in a year.
In fairness to the Stamford Bridge hierarchy, they get more right than wrong. For example, canning Frank Lampard last season appeared premature. His replacement, Thomas Tuchel, saved the season by winning the Champions League.
One of their better moves, that. On the pitch, you could point to Fernando Torres, Danny Drinkwater and Andriy Shevchenko as huge flops.
But with the majority, they’re bang on the money. Rudiger, though, does not fall into that category. He’s in a brilliant bargaining position – and his agents know it. Somehow, the Blues have left themselves in the position where, unless they tie down the German star or Andreas Christensen, they could be without a senior defender this time next year.
Thank goodness someone saw fit to extend Thiago Silva’s stay in west London. The veteran Brazilian oozes class and is well worth his spot in a top-four side. But he will be 38 shortly after next season gets underway.
Trevoh Chalobah has been thrown in, but the 22-year-old is still learning his trade and to think that he would be preferred ahead of either Christensen or Rudiger doesn’t bear scrutiny.
Top-class defenders are in short supply – and central defenders capable of playing to a consistently high level in both the Premier League and Europe are trading at a premium. How much would it cost to replace Rudiger? And Christensen?
Manchester United paid £80m for Harry Maguire. Raphael Varane was bought when Real Madrid were conducting a fire-sale – he still commanded a £40m fee.
Burnley’s James Tarkowski reportedly has a £50m release clause and his experience doesn’t even come close to that of the Chelsea pair.
If they don’t tie them both down, they could be looking at a £120m bill for their replacements. Ouch.
The rumour mill now suggests that Rudiger is upset because several of his teammates have received bumper pay deals.
Strikers are paid more – it’s the way of the world in football – and with Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku bagging upwards of £300,000, perhaps their team-mate has a point.
Strikers win matches. Defenders win titles. You need both. And, right now, Chelsea need Rudiger. There’s no guarantee that any replacement will be half as good.
It might hurt, but the result of letting him get away will be much more painful.