Chelsea backed out of Tyler Adams deal due to ‘fears about his hamstring injury’ — report

On the face of it, Chelsea appeared to pull out of the Tyler Adams deal in order to funnel the £20m we would’ve paid for his release clause into the budget for the Moisés Caicedo deal, which suddenly got £15-20m more expensive due to Liverpool’s British record bid.

Adams had traveled down to London in expectation of finalizing his move, but less than 24 hours later was heading back up to Leeds. And that’s not something we wish on anyone.

That sequence of events didn’t exactly put us into a positive light, playing with a player’s emotions and future, as we scrambled to “salvage” the Caicedo situation that got out of control quite quickly after two months of impasse.

But according to a report from the Daily Mail, we pulled out of the Adams deal less so because of financial considerations, and more so because of his hamstring injury. It’s not like we can’t scrounge up another £20m from Papa Clearlake at this point.

While obviously we were aware of the injury, apparently we weren’t entirely convinced that he would be back soon (enough) from it. And even at the earliest, considering that he hasn’t played or trained since mid-March, he wouldn’t have been ready to play until at least a month into the season. That doesn’t sound like a long delay, but there’s been some suggestions that it would be several more months before Adams plays. (Those have been rubbished by the player’s camp, who are now soliciting moves from other Premier League sides since he doesn’t want to play in the second division.)

Given all that uncertainty, it’s understandable why we pulled out of the deal, decent value as it might have been for an experienced, tenacious player who could’ve added a fair bit of leadership as well to the group.

Oh well, all aboard (again) the Caicedo (and Roméo Lavia) train!