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It’s become abundantly clear over the last couple months that Michy Batshuayi’s time in Valencia is ending prematurely, and the only reason an official decision hasn’t been made yet is that a) it’s not January (when players can move), b) the two teams have not figured out the exact arrangement regarding any potential penalty fees for cutting the loan in half and c) Chelsea haven’t figured out what to do with Michy after.
The man with the finger on the pulse of all things Belgian in the Premier League, Kristof Terreur claims that Chelsea have offered him to Crystal Palace, in addition to the rumors of AS Roma as well as AC Milan and AS Monaco interest (both of those teams are getting linked with anybody and everybody these days, so that’s probably just idle chatter).
Valencia are still staying that they haven’t taken a final decision over Batshuayi, but Chelsea are preparing for a ‘loan cut short’ scenario.
— Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) December 22, 2018
Michy has played a significant role in Valencia’s goal-scoring troubles this season, though he’s been firmly entrenched at the bottom of the pecking order for the last couple months. He’s played a total of 39 minutes in Valencia’s last five league matches, and has only seen significant minutes in dead rubber European games and a Cup match against third division CD Ebro. Michy actually scored against the team from the Segunda B Group III midtable, so at least he’s got that going for him.
That was only the third goal of Michy’s season (in almost 1000 total minutes), a far cry from his success in the second-half of last season at Borussia Dortmund and an even farther cry from 2015-16, when he scored 23 times, adding ten assists, for Marseille.
His career is now in need of a jump start, which is unlikely to happen if he has to compete with Giroud, Morata, and even Hazard for center forward minutes at Chelsea. While on some hopeful level it might make sense to replace Morata with Batshuayi, nothing since the World Cup gives us confidence that Michy could slot in any more effectively than Morata, if that.
While Higuaín is surely not happening (too old, too expensive, also out of form, already rejected once), Chelsea’s striker situation will be one of the big areas of attention in January. Michy does have an outside chance, but it’s much more likely that he lands somewhere else (on loan) for the second half of the season.