Chelsea pushing for new contract with Ian Maatsen — report

After a bit of Deadline Day drama, Ian Maatsen ended up staying with Chelsea, and will now hopefully build on his excellent preseason with regular (and impactful) appearances.

But away from the strictly footballing aspect of the situation, there’s trouble brewing on the horizon, with Maatsen’s contract set to expire at the end of the season — at least as far as we can tell.

When Maatsen signed his contract in March 2020, the official website reported it as “until at least summer 2024”, which might imply a club-option for a one-year extension (a common feature in many of our recently negotiated contracts), though no one’s talking about anything like that right now.

So assuming Maatsen can walk for free at the end of the season, it is indeed imperative that we get him to sign a new contract. His supposed reluctance to do so before is what led to Chelsea accepting Burnley’s bid at the end of the window — but hopefully his decision to reject a return to the team he played for last season shows that he’s now willing to sign his future to us.