21 year old Champions League starter a dream for Chelsea at number 6 | OneFootball

We’re trying to distract ourselves from last night’s dreadful performance and dreadful result, and of course the easiest way for a football fan to do that is with transfer rumours.

What can solve the deep rooted malaise of the team which rolled over to be beaten 3-0 last night? More young players! That’s the idea anyway. Today we hear reports from Catalonia that Chelsea are keen on highly rated Barcelona midfielder Marc Casado.

The 21 year old is among the group of La Masia players who has taken advantage of the club’s recent financial struggles and established himself in the first team.  Everything is set up for him to be part of a new golden generation at the Camp Nou, but the links to the Blues remain.

According to Cadena SER, Chelsea first looked at Casado in the summer, and have made an approach again in recent weeks to see what terms would be require to engineer a summer move.

Casado a dream option for Chelsea – if they can persuade Barcelona to sell

Marc Casado playing for Barcelona (Photo by Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)

In terms of style, Casado would be a perfect choice and a perfect fit for this Chelsea team, who desperately need a midfielder who can control the game, but with strong defensive instincts to boot.

Of course there are a plethora of players already on the books who could potentially do that – Andrey Santos and Lesley Ugochukwu are out on loan this season – but Casado has been doing it at Champions League level and has that pedigree already. He’s the right age and a perfect profile.

We really don’t see how we persuade Barcelona to sell, or Casado to move. The kind of money needed to make them sell is not going to mean he fits into our strict model of player trading.