ESPN journalist believes this player’s presence at the dressing room would prevent Higuain joining Chelsea.
New twists emerge every day in Chelsea’s pursuit of Gonzalo Higuain. With reports of Higuain’s agent flying to agent to London to Higuain requesting Milan to omit him, it seems Marcotti believes Higuain won’t join Chelsea because of this player.
Chelsea are unlikely to sign Gonzalo Higuain this month – and Eden Hazard could be the reason why. That’s according to ESPN journalist Gabriele Marcotti. The Blues have been heavily linked with Higuain this month as Maurizio Sarri desperately seeks a striker to fix his side’s goalscoring woes. Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud have struggled in front of goal. The Blues are keen to ease the pressure on talisman Hazard. Higuain is on loan at AC Milan from Juventus. But the Argentine could link up with former boss Sarri in west London. But with Hazard’s future in doubt amid Real Madrid speculation, Marcotti believes Chelsea will prioritize keeping him at the club rather than splashing out on Higuain.
Gabriele Marcotti told the Guillem Balague Transfer Show, “I think there’s a number of issues here. The first one is from Chelsea’s perspective. Chelsea hasn’t qualified for the Champions League in two of the past three seasons. They’ve had to make enormous payouts to Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho.” Marcotti also revealed how Chelsea’s most important players will out of contract in 2020. He said, “Chelsea have four players who are very important to them who go out of contract in 2020. They have to either extend or sell in the summer. That’s Eden Hazard, Willian, Pedro and Hudson-Odoi.”
He further said, “Another factor is Chelsea have just spent €64m on Pulisic. So Chelsea isn’t exactly rolling in money. They are going to be very reluctant to take on a multi-year deal for a guy that’s not going to have any resale value, for a guy who is on an enormous wage. They would rather go and give the money to Eden Hazard to try to get him to stay.”
Author’s Take:
What Marcotti is true. If they lure Higuain then he would be one of the top five paid players in the league or at least Chelsea. However, given FFP regulations the blues might be trouble to do that. The Blues should recall Tammy Abraham to solve the goal scoring problem.
