A report by Darren Lewis in the Mirror leads with the declaration that Chelsea are “poised” to sell “flop” Michy Batshuayi in the summer, which, given the fact that the 23-year-old has barely played despite making 21 appearances for the club so far, isn’t that much of a stretch. He’s averaged a whopping 6 minutes in his 16 Premier League appearances, which is surely approaching some sort of record.
5) Unimpressed Chelsea boss Conte ready to move on from £33m Batshuayi after just one year #CFChttps://t.co/rHgSO5skzl pic.twitter.com/7nHgpNKpOA
— Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) February 28, 2017
The Mirror does not venture a guess as to who might be willing to take on Batshuayi’s transfer fee and salary — not so easy to get rid of a £33m-man on good wages after all — nor does it acknowledge the fact that above all, Batshuayi was bought as a player for the future rather than the present. With Diego Costa outperforming expectations, both in terms of goals and healthy minutes, it’s not entirely surprising that Batshuayi’s been reduced to a strictly backup (and sometimes not even that) role.
That said, with Chelsea constantly linked with other strikers — Lukaku, Morata, Celtic’s Dembélé the usual suspects, through there’s a recent report about scouting Bayern target Andrea Belotti again as well — Batshuayi’s future is far from certain. But his attitude seems good and Conte seems committed to working with him, so I’d like to think this first season is just one long preamble to a successful career at Chelsea.
On a slightly related note, the Chinese transfer window has now closed. And Diego Costa is still here! Imagine that.