‘Chelsea move to appease Christopher Nkunku after Joao Felix exit’
Chelsea have seemingly tried to make peace with their unsettled forward Christopher Nkunku after loaning out Joao Felix to AC Milan.
Nkunku was in talks to join Man United at the end of the January transfer window, having struggled for minutes at Chelsea.
That deal failed to happen, as did a transfer that would have seen Chelsea do a swap-deal between Nkunku and Mathys Tel with Bayern Munich.
However, the young Frenchman joined London rivals, Tottenham, forcing the Blues to hang on to Nkunku.
During Enzo Maresca’s press conference on Friday (7 February), the Argentine manager insisted: “We planned since December to keep Christopher Nkunku. It was our intention.
“For sure now he will have bigger role. He played half an hour vs West Ham. Hopefully he can get more minutes and help us”.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca tries to keep Christopher Nkunku happy
Nkunku is a puzzling player for manager’s to deal with, not because of attitude problems, more so that throughout his career, the Frenchman has never really had a set position on the pitch.
During his time at RB Leipzig, he was sort of a striker, but only in the loosest sense, as he had total licence to drop deep across the pitch to find the ball.
The Frenchman was often paired with target man Andre Silva, up top, with now-Barcelona star Dani Olmo behind the duo.
Silva’s disciplined hold-up play and Olmo’s steady stream of creative passing made sure that any gaps left by Nkunku were not an issue, and the Frenchman had a knack for arriving late in the box to finish off an attack.
But at Chelsea, that same creative licence is not afforded to Nkunku, he was signed off the back of scoring 20 goals in the 2021/22 season, and 16 in the 2022/23 season, the Blues may have thought they were signing a player to lead the line, but that is not how he plays.
As a result, Maresca has favoured Nicolas Jackson as his lone striker, given the Senegal internationals ability to hold-up play and connect with Cole Palmer.
Then there is that man, Palmer, who has been touted as a Ballon d’Or winner in the future. If there was ever a position for Nkunku to play, it would in the number 10 role behind Jackson, but Palmer is simply un-droppable for Chelsea.
It remains unclear where Maresca plans to use Nkunku to give the Frenchman more minutes, but with Jackson failing to find the net recently, and Chelsea out of form, the former Leipzig striker may become the Blues’ new striker.
With the former Leicester boss revealing young striker Marc Guiu faces an extended spell out injured, and regular starter Jackson seemingly picking up a knock in the win over West Ham it appears the Blues suddenly need the want-away Nkunku so will have to get him re-engaged.
Joao Felix banished to AC Milan in January transfer window
Felix was signed on a seven-year contract in the summer in a £46.3million deal from Atletico Madrid, and only half-a-year later, is on-loan at AC Milan.
The truly frustrating part of the deal, saw hard-working Connor Gallagher go the other way, and it is fair to say Atleti came out on top.
The move to send Felix out may also have been done to help assuage Nkunku, after failing to agree a deal for the Frenchman in January.
The Blues under Todd Boehly’s stewardship have made some shrewd signings, but for every Palmer and Marc Cucurella, there is a baffling deal like Felix’s or Axel Disasi’s.
Felix will return in time for the Club World Cup, and if a permanent deal is not done for the Portuguese striker by then, he may be used in the tournament to try and encourage clubs to make an offer for the former Barcelona striker.
The Chelsea loanee made a bright start to his loan at AC Milan, scoring for his new team on his debut against Roma.