They may not have spent the truly enormous amounts of money they have in their past windows, but Chelsea are still busy in the market this summer.
As things stand out, the outstanding signatures of conference league champions are Joao Pedro, Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens, and they plan to secure the now-high-rated Jorrel Hato.
But for all the great deals they managed to get over the line, they had to watch Liverpool get a free-score Hugo Ekitique, advertised for their move to Stamford Bridge early in the window.
Fortunately, if the report is believed, the people of West London could be trapped in players who could become their own version of the French attacker.
Chelsea targets his own Ekitique
There’s already a lot going on this summer, and it’s often hard to track every deal and rumor, but it’s true that Chelsea has linked Ekitique at a few points towards the start of the window.
However, as Bruce clearly focuses on other more pressing targets, and perhaps less interesting than some stories suggest, Liverpool steals a march to them, securing the French service at a rate of £69 million.
Interestingly, the former Eintrak Frankfurt star is clearly no longer available, but the West Londoner appears to be trapped in another offensive gem that could become his version.
At the very least, it reaffirms Chelsea’s strong interest in the talented Zabi Simons, according to a recent report from German outlet builds.
The report goes a step further, revealing that Bruce has reached a broad agreement on terms with the players themselves, and although they have not yet made an official offer to RB Leipzig, German outfits are believed to be on hold at a rate of around €610 million.
It’s an expensive transfer to get past the line, but given Simons’ abilities and potential, it’s worth it, especially as he could become their own ekitike.
Why Simons could become Chelsea’s own ekitike
Well, the first thing to say is that while Simons is an incredibly versatile player and has made some appearances, he is not as central as Ekichike, there are still a few reasons why the former could be the latter version of Chelsea.
First, the young Dutch are also heading from the Bundesliga side outside the traditional Big 2 in Leipzig to the “Big 6” side of the Premier League.
Secondly, both players move at similar ages. There are only 22 midfield maestros and the exciting center forward turns 23.
The final somewhat surface level similarity is the fact that both of them spent time playing for Paris Saint-Germain.
Simons joined the French side of youth system in 2019, then moved to Leipzig to January became permanent, leaving the following year until a new Liverpool star joined the Parisian in July 2022, leaving for Germany on a permanent deal two years later.
Finally, the previous PSV Eindhoven Dynamo is unlikely to see the 22 goals scored in Skoytike last season in 48 games as he tends to play, but he still has the ability to have offensive tour powers.
For example, in just 33 appearances last season, the Amsterdam-born “Game Changer,” dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, scored 11 goals and provided eight assists.
Simon’s on 24/25 | |
---|---|
exterior | 33 |
Min | 2763′ |
the goal | 11 |
assist | 8 |
Involvement of goals for each match | 0.57 |
Per target engagement | 144′ |
All statistics through the transfer market |
In other words, the sensational talent that analyst called “one of the 10 bests in the world” was able to average goal involvement every 1.73 games or every 144 minutes.
Ultimately, that’s not cheap, but Chelsea should be doing what they can to bring Simons to West London this summer.
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