Chelsea put their future on 20 year old rated lower than player whose contract they terminated | OneFootball

There is a lot of talk around at the moment about Chelsea and their centre back options.

The situation is that the club have invested heavily in a number of players in that position over the last few years, yet still don’t have an outstanding, world class option there.

Their first choice pair are Levi Colwill, a youth academy product, and Wesley Fofana, who has struggled with serious injuries for years in a row.

Yet all the briefs continue to insist that the Blues aren’t looking to spend more money at the back – and they showed that this summer when they refused to buy another player despite Colwill’s season ending injury.

Chelsea keep faith in Sarr progress

Mamadou Sarr at Club World Cup media duties. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

One reason for this is apparently that the club have a lot of faith in Mamadou Sarr, a player they signed from sister club Strasbourg who will join the Blues full time next summer.

But is Sarr really up to that sort of level? Let’s take a look at his stats.

He’s started 6 of Strasbourg’s 7 league games this season with a WhoScored average rating of 6.82. That makes him the 5th highest rated player on their team. It puts him 15th in the whole of Ligue 1 for centre backs with more than 4 starts.

Although, one should be cautious – Mamadou’s namesake and former Blue Malang Sarr is rated as the third best centre back in the league by the same rating system.

Sarr’s youth means major promise to come

To be fair to Sarr, he’s the only player under 21 in the top 20 central defenders in the whole league. He’s got a lot of developing still to do, and this season should be huge for him. He’s certainly not going to already be the elite player we want by next summer, but he may have shown enough that people are willing to see him be the defensive addition we need.