Manager rejects Chelsea trio: Desperate Blues suffer transfer embarrassment

Robin Bairner

• 10 Feb 2024 09:55 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea’s desire to cut their wage bill by offloading deadwood in the January transfer window failed, with the Blues’ last-ditch attempts to relieve themselves of a trio of fringe players falling embarrassingly short.

Todd Boehly’s strategy of signing players on long deals might have been low risk in terms of the financial impact on the club in the short term, but already Chelsea are starting to suffer in the medium and longer term.

While it was claimed that the Blues spent lavishly because they believed they faced the prospect of a transfer ban, what is certain is that too few of their signings have made a positive impact either at Stamford Bridge or away on loan.

During the winter transfer period, the idea was to move numerous players around, but a couple have been left stranded at Chelsea after the Premier League giants failed to offload them to Turkish side Besiktas while another had to be shunted on to BlueCo-owned Strasbourg.

Chelsea trio rejected by Besiktas

Malang Sarr, Deivid Washington and Andrey Santos were all offered to the Turkish side – but manager Fernando Santos said he did not want any of them.

Ajansspor reports: “Chelsea President Todd Boehly says: ‘Let’s give you Malang Sarr. You make a deal.’

“Fernando Santos said: ‘We have Colley as a left stopper. How can I play two left-sided centre-backs?’

“Chelsea also offered Deivid Washington to Besiktas. Fernando Santos said: ‘Semih is much better than Washington’.

“They were also offered Andrey Santos. Fernando Santos said: ‘We don’t need to buy anyone unless they are very special players.’”

This incident highlights how tricky Chelsea’s current model will be to execute, even allowing for the fact that Sarr, who also had a move to Le Havre breakdown late in the French transfer window, arrived well before Boelhy bought the club in 2023.

Besiktas are 24 points off the Turkish Super Lig leaders and have a squad that counts Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and on-loan Nottingham Forest defender Joe Worrall among their number, and yet Chelsea’s stars of the future are still not good enough for them.

They were forced to loan out Andrey Santos to sister club Strasbourg, while the other players remain stranded at Stamford Bridge.