Chelsea set for another transfer war with Barcelona

FT Desk

18 Sep 2022 04:11 CDT
3 min read

Chelsea lost Andreas Christensen and Marcos Alonso on free transfers to Barcelona this summer, and now face a race against time to stop Jorginho doing the same thing.

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While Chelsea might have been quite happy to allow for Alonso's move - the deal completed at the same time as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's €12m transfer the other way - Barca proved the bane of their existence more than once.

Chelsea discussed terms with each of Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Jules Kounde, and while the former always made it clear Barcelona were his preferred destination on leaving Bayern Munich, the other two were on the cusp of moves to Stamford Bridge before Barca came back in with €50m-plus bids.

What a goal from Raphinha against Real Madrid 🚀

Already a Barcelona legend 💀 pic.twitter.com/5r11BzzD1g
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) July 24, 2022

Sergio Busquets turned 34 in July, and while Barcelona are known to have scouted Brazilian wonderkid Andrey Santos, his compatriot Jorginho boasts significantly more experience whilst still being a viable replacement for a player he has four years on.

Jorginho is Chelsea's penalty taker and completed an average of 89.4 per cent of his passes last season - an impressive figure when more than six per game were progressive ones.

He also has some latent loyalty to the recently deposed Thomas Tuchel at Stamford Bridge, even if he did start Graham Potter's first game - a 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League.

Jorginho: 'our reponsibility'

"Of course, we're a team, so it's not one person responsible for what happened," he said. "We're a team and a group on the pitch. Of course, it's our responsibility what happened.

"It was a surprise for us. There's always talking about what happened but now we have games coming and life is quick, so we don't have much time to stay here thinking."

Busquets understands the need to renew, meanwhile.

"I hope I can play at the World Cup. After that, I will see how I am, what the coach [Xavi] wants from me, the club, and we will decide," he said.

"I will not be a problem, honestly. When my contract expires, maybe the coach and the club will want me to continue, but maybe I will feel the moment has arrived."