According to reports from The Daily Star yesterday morning, Chelsea are set to hijack Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit of Southampton enforcer Victor Wanyama with a £20million bid.
What’s the word?
The Daily Star claim that following Chelsea’s poor start to the season, Jose Mourinho is keen to improve his options in the middle of the park by launching a bid for Saints enforcer Victor Wanyama – the Kenyan brick-house play-breaker at the heart of Southampton’s midfield.
Wanyama has been no stranger to the Premier League’s rumour columns over the last few months. Tottenham Hotspur are also known admirers and reportedly tried to sign the 24 year-old during the summer, The Star alleging a bid of £18million plus Erik Lamela on loan made in the final days of the transfer window.
Upon such news, manager Ronald Koeman insisted the 6 foot 2 defensive mid wouldn’t be sold. That prompted Wanyama to express his desire to leave St. Mary’s twice in the final week of August – according to Sky Sports – but the much-speculated White Hart Lane move never materialised.
Now Chelsea are looking to pick up where their London rivals left off as Southampton are ‘faced with the tough choice’ of selling a player who seems disinterested in extending his contract past 2017.
How good is he?
Wanyama’s never received the same level of critical acclaim as former defensive midfield accomplice Morgan Schneiderlin, whose reputation as one of the top ball-winners in the Premier League earned him a £25million move to Manchester United this summer.
But the Frenchman was always the better-rounded and therefore more eye-catching of the two. In truth, the Kenyan international is arguably a more effective holding midfielder in the limited anchor-man definition of the position, boasting a physically dominant 6 foot 2 frame and a simple-yet-effective style of play.
He’s certainly capable of improving Tottenham’s engine room, which is hardly laden with proven talent at the minute and needs an addition who can hit the ground running like the 24 year-old.
Whether he’s at Chelsea title-contending level, on the other hand, is considerably more open to debate. But famed for his physicality and simplicity, Wanyama does give the allure of a Mourinho-esque player.
Do Chelsea really need him and what kind of price?
Perhaps. Chelsea’s midfield options have been found wanting at times this season and some new blood wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Indeed, the Cesc Fabregas–Nemanja Matic partnership is yet to provide the ideal equilibrium of defensive protection, physicality, creativity and control as it did last season, whilst Ramires and John Obi Mikel could well be in the final chapters of their Stamford Bridge careers.
Another option in the middle of the park certainly wouldn’t weaken Mourinho’s squad – although Ruben Loftus-Cheek hugely impressed against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League last week and many have tipped the 19 year-old juggernaut to soon become a first team regular. Wanyama’s arrival would infringe upon his development somewhat.
In terms of price, The Star have quoted a figure of £20million, which of course is within the same region as the aforementioned summer bid from Spurs. But with his contract now into it’s final two years, Chelsea or the Lilywhites may be able to sign the midfielder for less if they wait until the summer.
How reliable is the story?
When The Daily Star reveal an exclusive, the immediate thought is that it’s an exclusive because either the source has failed to convince more reputable newspapers of their legitimacy and therefore settled for a notoriously inaccurate tabloid, or that they’ve quite simply made it up.
Likewise, The Star insinuate the offer will be made in January but don’t actually say it outright – they state a ‘£20m transfer window bid’ and claim the Saints will be ‘faced with a tough choice in January’ – which suggests the facts surrounding this story might not be exactly concrete.
Although Tottenham Hotspur’s interest appears to be genuine, for example, Matt Le Tissier has disputed the value and timing of their apparent summer bid; claiming that it was made much earlier in the transfer window and under the value Southampton paid former club Celtic for the towering midfielder in summer 2013 – £12.5million. Only The Express and The Metro have reprinted the story, which suggests a lack of credibility.
That being said, Chelsea are clearly in the market for a new defensive-minded midfielder. They’re believed to have launched a £62million bid for Pogba in the summer and are expected to try again in January, whilst Porto prodigy Ruben Neves, dubbed ‘the new Busquets’, is also allegedly on their radar.
With Wanyama unlikely to pen new terms according to The Star, which The Daily Mail also claimed earlier this month, it’s by no means implausible that the English champions are monitoring him as a reasonably-priced option with Premier League-proven pedigree.
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