Chelsea should follow Tottenham's lead for Anthony Gordon transfer
Cameron Smith
- 23 Aug 2022 10:46 BST
- 4 min read
Despite numerous set-backs, Chelsea are still in the hunt for Everton forward Anthony Gordon as Thomas Tuchel sets about upgrading his forward line.
The Blues head coach has used a front three of Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz in Chelsea's opening three Premier League fixtures of the season, with the summer signing Sterling the only one to register a goal contribution - an assist for Reece James' goal against Tottenham.
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As a result, Chelsea have begun their search for additional attacking talent, with Barcelona's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Everton's Anthony Gordon at the top of the list.
A deal for Aubameyang is now in an advanced stage according to Sky Sports, while TalkSport have reported that Chelsea have launched a £60 million (€70m) bid for England U-21 international Gordon.
According to CBS reporter Ben Jacobs and Sky Sports, Chelsea are instead prepared to pay £60m to land the Everton star after seeing two previous bids rejected, but haven't yet pulled the trigger on their latest attempt.
Either way, it's incredibly foolish thinking from those in charge of the Blues' transfer activity. Unless Gordon is being signed to play as a wing-back, which can't be discounted given how Tuchel has often utilised Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi and even Christian Pulisic, he will add almost nothing to Chelsea's attack.
The aforementioned Jacobs has also reported that Tottenham were interested in Gordon before Chelsea, but valued him at £35m at most and therefore pulled out upon hearing how much Everton would demand. Despite this, Chelsea are willing to fork out more of an overspend than Nottingham Forest's purchase of Morgan Gibbs-White.
Gordon is an excellent work-horse, which is likely what Tuchel admires, with his pressures, tackles and blocks per 90 all registering in the top six percent of wingers/attacking midfielders in Europe's too five leagues.
5️⃣0️⃣ #PL appearances for @anthonygordon.
Maximum effort for the shirt, as always. 💙 pic.twitter.com/o6mJlSejP1— Everton (@Everton) August 7, 2022
But, he's only scored four senior goals in 63 games for Everton's first-team, all whilst playing in the forward line, not at wing-back.
He's not better than any of Chelsea's current attackers, including the unfancied Hudson-Odoi and Hakim Ziyech, and the Blues are seemingly willing to spend far too much money to land him.
How much is Gordon worth?
In fact, FootballTransfers value Gordon at just €23m (£20m), using our algorithm which calculates the value of a player by assessing hundreds of in-game data points as well as external factors such as age and contract length.
So, Tottenham's willingness to pay £35m would be a little overpriced, but it's miniscule compared to how much Chelsea are prepared to spend on a player who failed to score a goal in 11 games on loan at Preston North End in 2021.
