Chelsea will have to break all their transfer rules to sign 27 year old La Liga ace | OneFootball

Chelsea’s name has been thrown into the mix as one of the growing number of teams interesting in signing Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona.

The midfielder is into the final 18 months of his contract at the Camp Nou, and his failure to convince new manager Hansi Flick this season is leading to more and more chatter he could move on. There’s talk that Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and the Blues are all keen on making him an offer.

De Jong deal a huge stretch for frugal Chelsea

Chelsea have been approached over a move for Frenkie de Jong (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

This move seems very unlikely as it would require Chelsea to break some of the cardinal rules of the way they’ve been operating in the market in recent years.

De Jong is 27, coming from a big club and with high wage demands.

However, as we saw with Tosin Adarabioyo last summer, a free transfer does affect the balance of their calculations. The fact that you’re not paying an up front cost makes it more economically viable to buy an older player and still look to break even or profit on the books further down the line.

It would still be a break with the policy, and the flipside of the lack of transfer fee is the larger wages you have to pay a free transfer move. That on its own may be enough to put Chelsea off. They do desperately need some experience though, and if we keep failing in the league, our policy may finally change.

It’s a long way off – we’d have to see De Jong fail to sign a contract until the end of next season, become a free agent and then be persuaded by us. But in a year’s time, if he’s still not signed up, things could get interesting.