The £17m Chelsea transfer blunder that could spell great news for West Ham United

Did we really need a Wonka prequel? The critics and the box office bloodsuckers would have you believe that this festive period would have been irrecoverably ruined had we not been treated to the sight of Hugh Grant's face superimposed onto an Oompa Loompa's body, but for my money, as a fully-subscribed member of the Gene Wilder ride or die club, it all feels a touch unnecessary.

Instead, I would have liked to have seen the origin story of another grand maverick of American business, an unorthodox peddler of whimsy who invites people into his great, belching factory on the promise of sweet-toothed wonder, only for them to disappear in inexplicable ways before eventually leaving, altered forever and weighing up the prospect of legal action. Next year, I want to see posters plastered across every billboard and double decker bus in the country telling me that 'Timothee Chalamet is... Boehly'.

Ever since Todd Almighty rocked up at Stamford Bridge, he has gleefully enacted a series of recruitment decisions that have made Fizzy Lifting Drinks and Lickable Wallpaper look positively rational. After £1 billion of gluttony and a number of contracts that will endure longer than the average Everlasting Gobstopper, Chelsea still find themselves in a position so woeful that it is almost impressive.

And while it would barely represent more than drop in the proverbial ocean compared to some of their other recent transfer misfires, respected journalist Rudy Galetti has suggested that the Blues could be on the cusp of striking another eyebrow-raising deal.

Speaking recently, the Italian reporter said: “Chelsea is working to lighten the squad in view of the January transfer window due to Financial Fair Play. Among the names is also out Ian Maatsen. West Ham and two other English clubs are strong on the Dutch full-back. But also pay attention to Napoli who have asked for information on the feasibility of the operation. The player’s price is around €15-20m [£12.9-17.2m]. At the moment there are no contacts advanced but Maatsen is also liked for his young age. A profile that the Italian scouts like.”

Now, granted, Maatsen has hardly featured for Chelsea this season, and at the time of writing, has recorded just 132 minutes of Premier League football across 10 outings. On the basis of that alone, you can understand why Mauricio Pochettino, and those above him, might be willing to sanction his exit in the coming weeks.

But it wasn't so long ago that the Dutchman was being linked with Manchester City, and while those whisperings should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt, it is indicative of his considerable potential that they were remotely believable to begin with. At 21, Maatsen is a player with his entire career ahead of him, and who is widely expected to achieve wonderful things in the professional game.

If Chelsea were a winning juggernaut, then maybe it would be a little easier to understand Pochettino's reluctance to play the full-back, but they are resoundingly not, and the longer he dwells on the periphery at Stamford Bridge, the flatter his trajectory of development threatens to become. To that end, a January transfer makes absolute sense for the player, and if he were to sign for a side like West Ham, for instance, his arrival has the potential to represent a notable coup in years to come.

In fact, there is an argument to be made that the only real losers in any prospective sale of Maatsen are the party who have the power to decide whether it actually happens or not. Chelsea have a superb young talent sat around collecting cobwebs, and yet rather than give him a chance to prove himself in a team that consistently stumbles and stalls, they would seemingly rather sell him for a cut-price fee to temporarily ease some of the financial pressure brought on by countless other similarly daft transfer blunders. Then again, Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-dogic, Todd Boehly isn't known for his logic.