Chelsea are in danger of making yet another glaring transfer mistake with £60m new signing on the cards

It’s not often that a Premier League club actively seeks out the opportunity to sell one of its most high-profile young players to an immediate rival – less often still that many of their fans actively welcome the idea. That, however, is precisely what Manchester United are doing as they try to offload Alejandro Garnacho.

The Daily Telegraph are the latest outlet to report that Chelsea retain their rumoured interest from January, and that representatives from the two clubs are working to hash out separate deals which would send Garnacho to Stamford Bridge while Christopher Nkunku heads the other way. It’s a deal that would have seemed unthinkable just a year ago, but now looks eminently plausible. But will it happen, and who would be making the bigger mistake?

Alternative targets present barrier to Alejandro Garnacho’s Chelsea move

Garnacho himself seems to be more than keen on a move to Chelsea, with the Telegraph claiming that the Argentine prefers to remain in England should he move – and it’s highly probable that he does.

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim reportedly told Garnacho in May that he should find another club for next season, and the 20-year-old doesn’t seem to be in any mood to mend bridges amid frustration over Amorim’s decision not to start him in the Europa League final. A picture of him wearing an Aston Villa shirt with Marcus Rashford’s name on the back which has circulated over the past few days feels like a wilful provocation, and an indicator that he is more than happy to move on.

United reportedly want a deal worth up to £60m for him, which may present a bigger barrier. A similar valuation prevented a deal being reached with Napoli over the winter, and the club may need to reduce the price tag to facilitate a sale which now looks like a necessity.

Chelsea, for their part, admire Garnacho but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will make a bid – because while they need a new left winger after the departure of Jadon Sancho and the suspension of Mykhaylo Mudryk for alleged doping offenses, there are other names on their shopping list.

Reports from both England and Germany suggest that negotiations with Borussia Dortmund for Jamie Gittens are advanced and that the youngster is likely to move to Stamford Bridge later in the summer, when his current employers have finished their Club Would Cup campaign.

Elsewhere, Chelsea also have substantial interest in another 20-year-old wide player, Lyon’s Malick Fofana, who may be available at a discount given that his club are in urgent need of funds in order to avoid being forcibly relegated to Ligue 2 due to their debts.

The prospect of a cheap deal may be more distant now that Lyon owner John Textor has sold his shares in Crystal Palace for a deal worth nearly £190m – money which can perhaps be used to pay some of Lyon’s creditors – but even if the price isn’t knock-down, Fofana may still be higher on the shortlist than Garnacho.

Chelsea are unlikely to want more than two wingers, given that Pedro Neto has been a success so far out on the left flank since his move from Wolves, while promising academy product Tyrique George provides a further option out wide.

Much, then, relies on Chelsea deciding that Garnacho remains a priority signing despite a high asking price and the chance to find their reinforcements elsewhere. Should they find a fee that they like, however, both Manchester United nor Garnacho would be keen to get a deal done.

Should Chelsea sign Garnacho this summer?

Perhaps a bigger question, however, is less whether Chelsea can sign Garnacho, than whether they should. Despite an impressive first full season in the Premier League, it’s not easy to work out just how far he can go.

Statistical analysis from 3 Added Minutes back in the winter suggested that Garnacho’s progress had stalled over the course of the 2024/25 season to that point, and it wasn’t a trend that the Argentine reversed over the last few months of the campaign.

Garnacho is an excellent crosser of the ball and his pace and movement allow him to get in plenty of threatening positions, but his finishing and final ball lack refinement, as does his decision-making process. The result is a player who is not only failing to get better at an age at which one would normally expect to see upward progress, but one whose production adds up to less than the sum of his build-up play.

A return of six goals and two assists in the Premier League last season represented a drop from the year before, and not the numbers one would expect to see from a player supposedly worth £60m. That means that Chelsea would be gambling in large part on his potential – but improvement has been limited.

He should, at least, suit Enzo Maresca’s system better than Sancho or Mudryk did. Maresca wants his wingers to stay wider than most modern inside forwards, and players like Sancho, who thrive when able to drive into the middle of the pitch, didn’t quite line up with the coach’s requirements.

Garnacho does stick to wider areas when waiting to receive the ball more often than not, and is good enough with both feet and accurate enough with his crosses to be effective both on the outside of the opposing full-back and when cutting back in, but that’s also the role in which he struggled for form or consistency over the past year.

Gittens, in particular, has demonstrated himself to be both a better dribbler and a better finisher, although Garnacho has perhaps the stronger left foot and therefore somewhat more versatility in terms of his angles of attack. Still, that flexibility counts for rather less if he continues to lack confidence in front of goal or to make the wrong decisions in and around the box.

Garnacho is far from a sure thing, and the fact that his performances and statistical output have declined over the past year during a key phase of his professional development should be concerning. There is, certainly, a price point at which he’s worth taking a chance on, but £60m feels steep.

The judgement call that Chelsea need to make is whether Garnacho’s struggles are symptomatic of a player who lacks all of the tools required to operate effectively at the very top level, or whether it’s simply a case of a talented player who needs a change of scenery. Get that decision wrong, and they could easily make yet another expensive mistake in the transfer market.