6 hours ago
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Roma bound?
©IMAGO
Chelsea are looking to rebuild their faltering squad under new head coach Xabi Alonso, and that will inevitably lead to several players leaving Stamford Bridge this summer. The Premier League giants have already banked €76 million from the sale of Marc Cucurella and Tyrique George to Real Madrid and Everton, respectively, with reports pointing to another big-name departure in the coming months. According to reporter Ben Jacobs, Chelsea have now put winger Alejandro Garnacho up for sale and are determined to cash in on the player. Jacobs suggests that the London club will not consider a loan deal. Garnacho has been linked with a move to Roma and Napoli in recent weeks, but it remains to be seen whether any other clubs will jump at the opportunity to sign the Argentina international.
To say Garnacho’s time at Stamford Bridge has been an unmitigated disaster would be an understatement. The winger swapped Manchester United for the London club last summer in a deal worth €46.2m, but played a back-up role in the Chelsea squad, where he managed just eight goals and four assists in 43 appearances. Over the course of the season, Garnacho averaged around 50 minutes per appearance and started just 18 league matches for is new club. As such, Garnacho is likely to tumble down the pecking order under Alonso next season and with the arrival of winger Geovany Quenda and wing-back Marco Palestra, it’s unlikely that the Argentine talent will be well-suited to the Spaniard’s tactics and system, which tend to prioritise a back three with wing-backs.
The other issue for Garnacho is just how far his stock has fallen since initially bursting onto the scene at Man Utd. Once considered a fantastic prospect at Old Trafford, the winger’s market value skyrocketed to a career high of €50m in October of 2024. However, since then, Garnacho has struggled to live up to the promise and has seen his market value plateau and then begin to fall. In each of the last two Premier League market value updates, the Chelsea player has seen his market value fall to where it now stands at its lowest point since December 2023.
Indeed, as we can see in the table above, among all players aged 22 or younger in the Premier League last season, just three lost more market value than Garnacho. Over the course of his debut season at Stamford Bridge, the winger’s market value fell by €17m. Only Roméo Lavia (-€18m), Jamie Gittens (-€20m) and Ethan Nwaneri (-€20m) saw their market values plummet at a faster rate. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that Lavia and Gittens’ market value drops were primarily due to them missing 26 and 25 games through injury last season, respectively. While Nwaneri, much like Garnacho, simply failed to make an impact at his new club, as a loan deal to Marseille ended in the young talent making just nine league appearances.
Either way, Garnacho’s career has gone sideways after some initial success with Man Utd. And while plenty of talented players have been chewed up by Chelsea’s gung-ho approach to player recruitment, the Argentine winger may only have himself to blame for failing to impress at Stamford Bridge. Now, with a move away from the club all but confirmed this summer, an opportunity may arise for Garnacho to get back on his feet and start pushing his market value back upwards and in the right direction.
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