The deep pockets of the Chelsea transfer machinery are being employed for another transfer window as the English club appear to have zeroed in on bringing Borussia Dortmund centre-forward Erling Haaland to Stamford Bridge as a solution to their goal-scoring deficiency for the upcoming season.
As a result, the UEFA Champions League winners have put together an enormous bid worth around £135 million to test Borussia Dortmund’s resolve to stubbornly hold on to the Norwegian as they have so far done since the transfer business began in earnest.
Most other clubs in Europe have tempered their heavy spending, which was on the rise in the seasons prior to the pandemic. The effects of the coronavirus on the financial bottom line of the biggest spenders, have seen a moderate transfer season so far but, Chelsea look set to up the ante with a monster offer for the 20-year-old.
The handlers at Stamford Bridge have identified the talent of the young but remarkable capable goal scorer as the extra addition to make their squad nearly impossible to beat and are resolved to break Dortmund’s public insistence that they are not interested in listening to bids for Haaland.
The belief for the Blues is that even Dortmund will not be unwise to allow such a fantastic bid go to waste given the difference it could make for the club as most European sides recover from the unusual season that was the 2020/2021 campaign. When the full sum of around £135 million reaches the Dortmund account, they could rethink their priorities.
It is a hefty sum and Dortmund must know that by next year, they will not be in a position to command anything close to this for the striker based on market fluctuations. Chelsea also have to dole out agent fees to both player agent, Mino Raiola, and player father, Alf-Inge Haaland, and could potentially not go higher than the £135m mark.
This will be the freshest test yet of the Dortmund resilience. They held off another English club, Manchester United, in Old Trafford’s pursuit of Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho for as long as it took for them to get United come as close as possible to their valuation of the Englishman, before they let go.
They have demonstrated a resolve to keep Haaland this summer by words and action. Their insistence to only listen to any offers of £150m is particularly the reason Chelsea even came this high. If they continue to stick to their own price, it is unlikely that Chelsea will bite any further. And they will have kept Haaland for another year.
There are alternatives to Haaland that the Blues can target if the German club refuses to play ball. They might look to bring Serie A’s Romelu Lukaku back to the EPL from his title-winning run at Inter Milan or keep things tidy by snatching up the established Premiership goal machine Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur.
For the sake of spurning the overpriced Haaland, Chelsea could also add a cheaper extra striker, even after picking Lukaku or Kane, in the form of the towering Stuttgart forward Sasa Kalajdzic, who happens to be the latest man on the radar, for a fraction of Dortmund’s asking price.
