OFFICIAL: Chelsea winger completes £52m move at last
Noni Madueke has left Chelsea and joined Arsenal on a permanent deal, the club have just confirmed.
The winger leaves for a fee which Fabrizio Romano has reported will be £48m plus £4m in potential bonuses.
We’ve had a lot of transfer dealings with Arsenal in the last few years, but this is different. There is without doubt something slightly strange about selling a first team regular at a prime age to our rivals.
Madueke’s future at Chelsea always felt in doubt, even after a year where he was first choice winger for Enzo Maresca for large spells. The Italian coach always spoke positively about the former PSV man, but did drop him twice for a lack of intensity, once in training and once in a game.
It looks like there’s going to be a shift towards using more of our new strikers and central attackers, with Cole Palmer deployed on the right.
Madueke leaves Chelsea with a mixed legacy
We were never the biggest Madueke fans – we’re sure he’s a lovely person, but we found him pretty grating as a character, and his play was often extremely frustrating.
However in many ways that’s the nature of being a winger. You’re out there to try things and take risks, knowing that they may not come off.
There were also clear signs of improvement through his time at the club, and if he ups his game again next year we could easily be left wondering why we’ve given up on him so soon.
Chelsea given major leg up over league rivals
Law went on to compare Chelsea’s transfer situation to other top teams because of this setup:
“It keeps the market open for Chelsea massive. Look at Villa with Ollie Watkins and Emi Martinez – two players they should be able to sell if they want the money or need the money. But because of their ages and because of their wages they are actually finding it really tough to. The other problem that top 5 or 6 clubs have is that nobody can afford their players. But Chelsea because the actual basic salaries are relatively low compared to other clubs of similar esteem, they don’t struggle to sell players.
We hope that last statement doesn’t prove to be premature – we’ve got Raheem Sterling and Joao Felix among the many first team options eating up a wage budget right now.
