Chelsea repeating De Bruyne and Salah transfer mistake

Robin Bairner

• 9 Jan 2024 09:42 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea face making a transfer mistake this January as Ian Maatsen is on his way to Borussia Dortmund.

Dortmund are known to be in the market for a left-back and have completed a deal to sign Maatsen, whom Chelsea had been eager to sell, on loan, according to Fabrizio Romano.

For a club whose project is based around the future capacity of their players, it represents something of a strange move, although the Dutchman has been used primarily as a winger by manager Mauricio Pochettino and not in his favoured full-back role.

Maatsen now leaves in a deal that threatens to echo Chelsea’s transfer mistakes of the past, when Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne departed before their potential could be realised.

Indeed, the 21-year-old should have a future at Chelsea as a full-back. According to data analytics experts SciSports, Maatsen has the potential to become better than either Marc Cucurella or Ben Chilwell.

Pochettino, admittedly, is ignoring this. With Cucurella and Chilwell injured, Maatsen has been mostly overlooked, with Levi Colwill and even Malo Gusto preferred in the role. The former PSV youth, meanwhile, has been asked to play further forward, where he has still shown great promise.

Boehly making a mistake by letting Maatsen go

It is the backdrop of Financial Fair Play that is compelling the Blues to consider selling one of their brightest prospects. The potential FFP gains for selling an academy product they have not paid a fee for are far greater than offloading one of the expensive youngsters who have arrived at Stamford Bridge at a significant cost.

And it is Chelsea’s lavish spending over the last 18 months, which tallies more than €1 billion, that is forcing them into such sales.

Maatsen is collateral damage in all this, despite his obvious potential to become a starting player at Stamford Bridge.

It is here that Todd Boehly must unpick Chelsea’s transfer strategy and make it more streamlined.

Although Dortmund are clearly an attractive club for Maatsen, who has seen the Bundesliga outfit develop the likes of Jadon Sancho and Jude Bellingham, he is not the driving force behind this deal. It is the Blues who want him out, and not because of a lack of quality but instead because their lavish transfer policy means they can barely afford to keep him.

Buying big is all well and good, but Chelsea’s academy should be for the profit of the first team, and not purely in a financial sense.

Under Roman Abramovich’s charge, De Bruyne and Salah notably escaped because they could not get game time before becoming elite players. Now Boehly is being forced to sell his brightest prospects to fund his purchases.

Maatsen is a player who should have graduated to Chelsea first team regular, but the club’s management have denied him that chance. The Blues’ loss is likely to be Dortmund’s gain.