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Four years and bust, according to the 'EXCLUSIVE' from Matt Hughes of The Times.
Chelsea will make Oscar available for transfer this summer to help raise funds for an overhaul of their underachieving squad.
-source: Times
Even though we will be out of European competition, we will be sticking to our modus operandi of the last few years, and keep the net spend to non-outrageous levels. Which should mean sell before buy, or at least buy with the intent to sell. And according to this report, Oscar will be that golden goose.
While the 24-year-old has always maintained his desire to not only stay at Chelsea but become a legend a la Lampard, he has so far failed to shed his youthful inconsistencies in his almost 200 appearances for the club. It's hardly too late for that to happen of course -- Oscar's only about two years older at this point that Lampard was when he arrived at Chelsea, for example -- but as far as salable assets go, Oscar is perhaps most the realistic cash-generating option.
There's clear interest in him (China - unlikely; Italy - much more likely; France - maybe?). He's young, talented, and probably still has room to improve. He should command a generous transfer fee despite Chelsea's terrible season, and we should be able to replace him on the cheap from one of our veritable plethora of attacking players at the club or out on loan. They may not exactly possess Oscar's theoretical skillset that makes him indispensable to the way Chelsea operate (or used to operate under Mourinho), but all too often, Oscar himself has not quite possessed that either.
Of course, as with most rumors, this could all just be nonsense. There are three more years left on the contract extension Oscar signed at the start of last season. If we don't want to sell and he doesn't want to leave, no amount of foreign interest will change that. The years of Juventus rumors should be plenty of evidence in that regard. But if our thinking has changed, Oscar could very well be on his way out after four years this summer.