Why Chelsea would be crazy to swap Werner for Sane

Stefan Bienkowski

11 Sept 2021 14:42 BST
3 min read

From Roca to Sane: Rating all of Bayern Munich’s signings in 2020/21 — © ProShots

With one of the best squads in European football, Chelsea are under no real pressure to put serious plans in place for the coming January transfer window.

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The Stamford Bridge side may take another shot at enticing Sevilla defender Jules Kounde to the club, but for the most part Thomas Tuchel’s side shouldn’t need any major reinforcements.

As such, it’s with some intrigue but certainly a healthy dose of confusion that a number of fans greeted the reports from Spain that suggested the Premier League side may be gearing up to bring Leroy Sane to the club.

Not only that, but according to todofichajes, Chelsea may look to convince Bayern Munich into selling their winger by offering to exchange Timo Werner in return. Which, in a number of ways, simply doesn’t make much sense.

© ProShots - Leroy Sane has still to get started since moving to Bayern Munich

Sane isn’t good enough for Chelsea

For a start, there’s very little to suggest that Sane would be an immediate improvement on any of the options Chelsea currently have out wide.

For example, Tuchel can currently call up Hakim Ziyech, Callum Hudso-Odoi, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz to play on either wing and if he plays his preferred formation of a back three with wing-backs, the Chelsea manager can also use Ben Chilwell and Reece James as his wide threat.

Add to that the simple fact that Sane hasn’t quite shown a consistent degree of top-level form in about two seasons, and it makes very little sense to suggest that the German international could step into Chelsea’s squad and replace any of the aforementioned stars.

© ProShots - Timo Werner has been in superb form for the German national team recently

Chelsea still need Werner

While the German striker may now be forced to play second fiddle to Romelu Lukaku, that doesn’t mean Werner will spend this season with his feet up on the bench.

With strong intentions of challenging for the Premier League and Champions League this season, there’s little doubt that Werner will spend plenty of time on the pitch, either as a routine substitute for Lukaku or as an option on either wing.

He may not be flavour of the month at the moment, but there’s little doubt that Tuchel would much rather have Werner in his team than swap him for another inconsistent winger.