Former Chelsea manager Glenn Hoddle has urged the Blues to pursue a deal for Borussia Dortmund frontman Erling Haaland this summer.
The west Londoners are looking to close the gap between them and last season’s Premier League champions Manchester City this summer.
Despite defeating the Citizens 1-0 in May’s UEFA Champions League final, the Blues finished 19 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side last term and football.london understands that the London club want to add three players in this transfer window – with a defender, a midfielder and a striker all on Thomas Tuchel’s transfer shortlist.
The champions of Europe have been constantly linked with Borussia Dortmund forward Erling Haaland, and Glenn Hoddle has claimed the Blues should go all-out for the Norwegian – even if it costs Timo Werner a starting spot in Tuchel’s team.
Video Unavailable
“Haaland’s a different story, to be honest,” Hoddle said when speaking to football.london about replacing Timo Werner.
“If you can go and get him then you go and get him and worry about Werner and other players after. If you have the luxury of doing it then you do it.
“Werner is a strange one. I think there’s one more season where I wouldn’t throw out the baby out with the bathwater because he’s so close to scoring.
“I don’t know this stat it is off the top of my head with what I’ve watched. He’s probably had more VAR goals disallowed from offsides, slightly offside and only fractions, you’re talking fractions, you’re not talking oh, he ain’t got a brain, he’s offside again by a yard. It’s fractions.
The summer window is officially open and now the Blues can look to build on European glory and bolster the squad to push for Premier League supremacy.
By signing up to the Chelsea newsletter here, you’ll be receiving the latest news and rumours directly, as well as exclusive articles and content from club writers Sam Inkersole and Adam Newson, all for free!
And if you want to take part in the debate in the comments and join in with the Q&As to get your questions answered, create an account here, because we want to hear from you too.
“And he scored them and these have gone against him. Whereas the moment where he is just onside, look against England, if he dinks it they are the chances he’s been missing.
“But he’s been taking the ones that were fractional, you know, so the goalie doesn’t know it’s offside, they’re playing proper football then. It’s only VAR that has killed him to a certain degree, because he’s put that ball in the back of the net and that will give him confidence.
“At the end of the day there’s a story behind the story with Werner, he could go somewhere if you let him go, he could go and score 25 goals and Chelsea fans and Chelsea are thinking no let’s hope he can do it with us.”
Haaland has netted a whopping 57 goals across 59 games since joining Dortmund 18 months ago but would likely command a fee upwards of £100million this summer given he is still only 20-years-old.