Chelsea “monitoring” elite Premier League striker after bombshell announcement | OneFootball

As soon as the news came out that Alexander Isak had put in a transfer request, we wrote about it knowing it wouldn’t be long before Chelsea were linked.

Well, it took less than an hour. Miguel Delaney of the Independent has just written up his piece about the breaking news, and in there he has plenty of claims about Chelsea.

Chelsea want Isak – but would have to blow up current plans

Alexander Isak celebrates scoring for Newcastle against Liverpool (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Isak wants to “explore options at other clubs”, and Chelsea would love to be one of those options. The 25 year old has shown himself to be one of the best strikers in the Premier League, and it still feels like there’s another level he could go to.

Delaney says Chelsea have a budget of £100m left to spend, although using it would “requite a deviation from recent targets and a switch in profile,” meaning likely a move for Xavi Simons would be abandoned.

Signing elite players at the peak of their price and wage demands (and worst moment for resale value) is exactly what the club are moving away from.

Chelsea surely priced out of Isak interest – for now

Before we get too hopeful, the realities should be made clear. Newcastle’s position is that “Isak is not for sale,” and they’ve got him locked up under contract for 3 more years.

Delaney speculates that an offer of £150m might change that – but that’s surely too much for Chelsea, who are £300m of spending deep into this summer already.

To us, this looks like a situation where Isak will be forced to stay, and a move elsewhere will be pursued more forcefully next summer.

At that point, Chelsea will know how the likes of Liam Delap and Joao Pedro have settled in, and Isak’s contract will tick down to two years remaining.