Chelsea, Valencia negotiating over Michy Batshuayi loan — report

The transfer window may have shut, but Michy Batshuayi still looks to be heading out, as one of the at least two non-homegrown players who have to leave in order to slim the squad down to meet squad registration requirements.

Yesterday, a glimmer of hope appeared in reports claiming that negotiations between Valencia and Chelsea over a loan had stopped. However, they now appear to be back on, as reported by the same Valencia-based outlet.

The report claims that negotiations are taking place over a loan fee, with Valencia willing to pay €3 million and Chelsea seeking at least €4 million. The report is confident that a deal will be struck, as Michy wants to join. There is a decent chance that Michy’s desire to leave right now may have been triggered by his talks with Maurizio Sarri, who perhaps could not promise him anything more than just a fight for a backup role. Another season on the bench would not be good for Batshuayi, that’s for sure.

If there is a silver lining to all this, it’s that there will be no buy-option in the contract, which means that Michy may yet have a future with Chelsea. He will however have just two years left on his contract next summer.

If Michy does leave, Chelsea’s strikers will be Alvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham. That may not inspire much confidence at this point, going by the showings of Morata and Abraham this preseason — as well as the idea that Michy would thrive in Sarri’s system — but if any of the three ever does start clicking in Sarri-ball, they could turn us into a proper goalscoring machine.