Liverpool legend John Barnes believes that Christopher Nkunku’s transfer to Chelsea may prove to be a huge mistake.
On Saturday, it was widely reported that Chelsea had concluded a deal with RB Leipzig which would see the highly-rated forward move to Stamford Bridge next summer for around £63million.
Nkunku has scored 64 goals and made 51 assists in 159 appearances for the Bundesliga side since 2019, gaining him many admirers across Europe.
He was named as part of France’s World Cup squad but had to withdraw on the eve of the tournament after he was was injured by teammate Eduardo Camavinga in training.
Liverpool, Manchester United and former club PSG were interested in the 25-year-old, but it was Chelsea who were always most closely linked, with reports suggesting that the Blues agreed to pay £10m over the player’s release clause in order to guarantee the signing.
At the time of writing, neither the club nor the player have officially confirmed the transfer.
While landing such an incredible centre-forward should be exciting news for Chelsea fans, Barnes has erred on the side of caution, as he’s not sure that the player and club are best suited for each other at the moment.
‘He [Nkunku] is young but still quite experienced. He is very quick and has been very good for Leipzig for a long period of time,’ the former England winger told BonusCodeBets.
‘But it’s tough for younger players to come into a club like Chelsea as they are quite unstable in terms of changing their managers.
‘He has great potential but Chelsea haven’t been that great the last six months and I would hate to see a young talented player go to a club that is not structured at the moment.
‘If he goes to Chelsea they should have patience with him and I don’t think they have that with young players.’
It has been a difficult year for the Blues, especially following Todd Boehly’s takeover and the firing of Thomas Tuchel and hiring of Graham Potter.
Chelsea are currently eighth in the Premier League, eight points off the top four, with Potter and Boehly still working out things on and off the pitch.
While it seems that they are attempting to create more of a long-term project, in contrary to Roman Abramovich’s revolving door of managers, Chelsea do have a bad reputation for binning off youngsters who go on to be world-class players.
Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah and Romelu Lukaku are just a few of the players to have been written off too early at Stamford Bridge.
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