Abraham to stay and fight for a spot at Chelsea — report

Chelsea enter the final few hours of the transfer window with four (4) centre forwards all vying for a single starting spot, which likely means that at least one of them will be deemed surplus to requirements and asked to leave either on loan or permanently.

While the two most likely candidates for that appear to be Michy Batshuayi and Tammy Abraham, the latter of whom has featured regularly in preseason while the former has not played a single minute having just returned from post-World Cup vacation. However, perhaps tellingly, Batshuayi was the lone unused player of the five who came back last, with Kanté, Hazard, Cahill, and Giroud all getting 25 minutes against Lyon. Batshuayi’s non-homegrown status could be working against him as well.

Meanwhile, according to a report from the Mirror (pinch of salt needed), Abraham has impressed new coach Maurizio Sarri so much that he’s now determined to keep the youngster at the club for the upcoming season and may even provide him with an “increased role” in the squad. Tammy seems to be ready to fight for a spot and, in all honesty, might even fancy his chances.

Abraham was loaned out to Swansea City last season but he managed to score only eight goals in 39 appearances in all competitions. While that number is not sensational by any means, the Swans were continuously struggling in all departments during most of the season, and service for the attackers up front was usually rather dire or even non-existent.

There are several Premier League teams interested in Tammy’s services, such as Southampton, West Ham, Cardiff and most recently Brighton but he just might stick around with the big club in the end. Only a few more hours to go before the 5pm deadline, so we should know pretty soon how all this shakes out.