Chelsea’s loss could be RB Leipzig’s gain with 19-year-old striker

Dominic Solanke may have made it a point to debunk his supposed £50,000 per week salary demands, but his future at Chelsea looks no less bleak than it has for the past year or so. His contract is expiring this summer and chances are, he’s not re-signing. That’s not 100 per cent certain — see Ola Aina’s similar situation last summer — but that looks like the most likely outcome at the moment.

Unsurprisingly, given Solanke’s goalscoring credentials with the Chelsea Academy and, to a lesser extent with the England youth teams and Vitesse on loan last season, there is plenty of potential interest in his services. In addition to several Premier League suitors, Bundesliga heavyweights Bayern Munich have been linked as well. A less audacious option — according to the Daily Mail and a few others — could be Bundesliga upstarts RB Leipzig instead, who have made a name for themselves recently not only with their close integration with their sponsors Red Bull, but for their strategy of acquiring young talent on the cheap and using them to overachieve and exceed expectations.

While Solanke’s price would be well into the seven figures if he were to be signed by another English team, his mandated transfer fee would only be £350,000 if he were signed by a team from the continent. That’s quite the value there!