Chelsea asking €20m from Fiorentina for Matt Miazga — report

Three years after his debut for Chelsea in a 4-0 win over Aston Villa, Matt Miazga looks much closer to being the next Tomáš Kalas than ever playing for Chelsea again.

Since those 90 minutes of glory and a subsequent 45 minutes of un-glory (just one mistake!), Miazga has been treading the loan path, spending two increasingly impressive years at Vitesse, followed by an increasingly depressing half-season at Nantes, and then a decent spell at Reading in the second half of last season. But given all the other center back options at the club, including the likes of Zouma and Christensen who are in Miazga’s age bracket but well ahead of him in the pecking order, the USA international’s future is unlikely to include any minutes at Stamford Bridge.

That said, he does have three more years left on his Chelsea contract, which means that when teams like Fiorentina come knocking, we can begin negotiations at an asking price of €20m. That’s the story from Corriere dello Sport (via Sport Witness), who explain that Fiorentina’s new American owners are looking to some red-white-and-blue-blood into the team and have identified Chelsea’s loan warrior as their third option. Having struck out on the first (Timothy Weah*) and second options (Wil Trapp), they’ve now turned their attentions to Miazga, whom they value at €7-8m.

According to the report, Brescia are also interested, but La Viola are more than happy to wait a bit and see if they can negotiate a more reasonable price than 20 rocks.

Miazga has recently returned to Chelsea after starring in the Gold Cup for the US (alongside Christian Pulisic), but unlike Pulisic, he didn’t fly out to Japan. Instead, he’s at Cobham, where he’s joined the U23/loan group in their preseason preparations. Whether he leaves this summer on loan again, or he ends being sold, remains to be seen. Perhaps something will get worked out with Fiorentina, where he could take on a larger role than he’s ever likely to get at Chelsea.

* yes, NYC-born son of former Ballon d’Or and Chelsea FA Cup-winner and current President of Liberia, George Weah