Winners and losers from a De Ligt and Werner swap between Juventus and Chelsea

Karan Tejwani

27 Jun 2022 15:54 BST
4 min read

Matthijs De Ligt, Juventus, 2021/22 — © ProShots

Chelsea have proposed a swap deal with Juventus, as they hope to secure the services of Bianconeri centre-half Matthijs de Ligt by offering them Timo Werner.

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It’s believed that Chelsea were unwilling to match Juventus’ €100m valuation of the player, and have instead offered €45 million plus the German forward as a way of getting the player.

Chelsea have been in the market for a defender, having lost Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen already this summer, and need to bolster in that area.

With that, who would be the winners and losers of such a swap deal, should it go ahead?

Winners

De Ligt

The defender should be quite happy with such a move – he’ll be going from a Juventus team that’s not been in the best of form lately to a slightly more ambitious Chelsea side.

Thomas Tuchel is also a great manager to work under and has a proven record of improving defences, Rudiger being the most recent example.

De Ligt is also great on the ball, which is the sort of profile Chelsea need at the back, so it seems like a good match for player and club.

Chelsea

Apart from securing the services of a good player who is still young and likely to improve in the coming years, Chelsea are also letting go of a player they want to.

Werner has been far from great for Chelsea, and his record shows that, and they’ll be able to use him as weight in this deal to secure a player in a position they need to improve.

The deal also represents good value, and Chelsea will be able to focus on getting other targets for other positions over the rest of the window.

What a speech from the Ajax captain 👌

Take a bow, Matthijs de Ligt!pic.twitter.com/58B70cjb2S
— GOAL (@goal) May 16, 2019

Todd Boehly

There has been much curiosity over Chelsea’s summer activity, and much of it has been dominated by the departures of high-ranking club officials.

The signing of De Ligt would bring in a talented player – one with a big reputation in the game – and signal new owner Boehly’s intentions.

He would make an excellent first signings, and set the tone for what Boehly expects from the club now that he is there.

Losers

Juventus

The deal would hardly represent good value for Juventus – losing a defender who has so much potential for a fee where they won’t earn much.

Adding in Werner is also probably not the greatest addition for their attack – they’ve already lost Paulo Dybala, and Werner probably isn’t the best replacement.

The German’s inconsistency will have to improve drastically if he makes the move, and if he’s a key part of the Bianconeri attack.

Jules Kounde

The Sevilla defender has been keen to make a move from Sevilla, and Chelsea was seen as one of the destinations he was headed to.

Should De Ligt move to Stamford Bridge, it would eliminate a possible contender for his signature and limit his options to Barcelona and Newcastle United.

Barcelona aren’t in the best financial state, while Newcastle probably isn’t the right club to move to yet, so Kounde may have to extend his Sevilla stay.