Beşiktaş, Chelsea negotiating over Michy Batshuayi, confirms head coach

Michy Batshuayi is one of the countless many players surplus to squad requirements at Chelsea these days, and one of the countless many players surplus to squad requirements who are proving increasingly hard to shift in the market to at least get them off our wage bill but ideally also collect some semblance of a transfer fee for them.

The rumor mill has been particularly quiet around Michy in fact, though a recent bit of speculation linked him with Turkish Süper Lig champions Beşiktaş, who began their title defense with a 3-0 victory on Friday. After that victory, Beşiktaş head coach Sergen Yalçın casually dropped the bomb that he expects Michy Batshuayi to join his team next week after a protracted striker search that he’s hoping is finally at an end.

“We are trying to make the right transfers as much as we can, without causing our club to suffer economically. This is why this process is taking longer. We are late, but this is not about our will. It is very difficult to get players from Europe, to get the right players. We had 3-4 alternatives, but we had problems.

“Batshuayi will be here next week if nothing goes wrong. We have the players we want, we pay well and we will play in the Champions League. This situation strengthens our hand.”

-Sergen Yalçın; source: SuperHaber via Google Translate

It’s unclear from that revelation if Beşiktaş are working on a loan or a transfer, but Batshuayi has only one year left on his current Chelsea contract, so hopefully it’s the latter. Clearly, it won’t be a high priced operation either way.

After the news broke, Batshuayi appeared to confirm (or, alternatively, to make fun) of the impending transfer in classic Michy style alongside former Marseille teammate Georges-Kévin Nkoudou, who plays for Beşiktaş these days (and scored the first goal on Friday).

Still rolling with the Batman memes then.

Let’s see how this works out.