Chelsea to consider buttering the mackerel with Noni Madueke, Pedro Porro — reports

Chelsea’s freshly empowered, new-look recruitment team are wasting no time in putting Boehly & Co’s moneys to (good?) use, and considering that we’re just a third of the way through the January transfer window, we may be in for plenty more transfer fun.

Two of the latest names along those lines in the Chelsea rumor mill are PSV winger Noni Madueke and Sporting Lisbon CP right back Pedro Porro.

Madueke, 20, has been a big part of PSV’s first-team for a while now — at least when he’s been uninjured — scoring nine goals in each of the last two seasons, and has already rejected Premier League suitors in the past to take a more sensible approach to his career path. He even signed a new long-term contract in 2021. But he’s halfway through that deal and will have just two years left on it in the summer, which tends to maximize transfer values in the open market.

PSV are reportedly not looking to do business just yet, but apparently if we butter the mackerel, they might bite. That phrase, used by Dutch reporter Rik Elfrink, apparently means to put our money where our mouth is, so I guess if we’re serious, we might just have a good meal. But given Madueke’s recent injury history and the high fee likely, maybe we should save our butter.

Photo by Gualter Fatia/Getty Images

Or maybe we could spend it on a real position of need: proper backup at right back.

As the Telegraph remind us, that’s not an easy sell to any good player (“Hey, come and join us to be stuck behind Reece James forever!”), but we might just try it with Sporting’s Pedro Porro. As bonus, we could gazump Spurs in the process, which surely adds extra value already to whatever else the 23-year-old could add to the team.

Porro spent a few years in Manchester City’s loan army before moving to Portugal, initially on a two-year loan and then permanently by way of a buy-option last summer. His contract, which is only for three years, reportedly includes a buyout somewhere between €20m and €45m. Quite the range!

This one sounds quite speculative as far as the Chelsea angle’s concerned, but as long as Spurs continue to dilly-dally, we’ll get linked.