Why Badiashile rejected Man Utd and Liverpool for Chelsea

Stuart Telford

• 9 Mar 2023 09:41 GMT
• 3 min read

Benoit Badiashile was a man in demand when he swapped Monaco for Chelsea in a €38 million move in the winter transfer window…

Recent France international Badiashile was linked with Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle among others before he joined Chelsea from Monaco in January, signing a seven-year contract at Stamford Bridge.

The 6'4" left footer has been one of the brighter lights in what has been a difficult period under Graham Potter, the former Brighton manager who has a win ratio of less than 40 per cent - something that has improved with recent wins over Leeds and Borussia Dortmund.

READ: A Boehly BARGAIN! Brilliant Badiashile's value has rocketed

Badiashile could be forgiven for harbouring some regret with each of Man Utd, Liverpool and Newcastle in the race for the Champions League places this season, but Ligue 1 expert Jonathan Johnson doesn't think that's the case.

Vision 2030 and long contracts

"In terms of links with other Premier League clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United, I think Chelsea's focus on recruiting some of the best young talents in Europe at the moment for a project that will be medium- to long-term at the very least, I think that proved very attractive to Badiashile," he wrote in his CaughtOffside column.

"Chelsea are also offering famously long contracts to their players in order to make the overall transfer value a bit lower. So I think Badiashile was won over by Chelsea and he's proven a shrewd piece of business."

READ: How Chelsea could line up under Luis Enrique

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly has tried to implement a 'Vision 2030' at Chelsea, whereby the primary focus of the transfer market should be acquiring young players who would still be a playing and financial asset at the end of the decade.

Badiashile, at 21, fits that mould. He was joined at Stamford Bridge in January by the likes of Andrey Santos (18) and David Datro Fofana (20), while even mega-money arrivals Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk are still just 22.