When Inter Milan rejected Paris Saint-Germain’s reduced offer for Mauro Icardi this week, some speculated that the door was open for Chelsea FC to make a move for the 27-year-old striker.
Icardi is on a season-long loan at PSG where he scored 20 goals in 31 appearances. His loan agreement from Inter includes a €70 million option to buy fee, but due to the financial impact of the coronavirus, the Ligue 1 champions are hoping for a discount.
According to journalist Gab Marcotti, who is an expert in Italian football, Chelsea may want to think twice about pursuing Icardi. Appearing on ESPN FC (via Express), Marcotti didn’t criticize the Argentine but he simply made the point that he’s not the right fit for Frank Lampard’s system.
“Look, you can take everything that we’ve said about Inter and put it on hold because everything is pending finding a buyer for Mauro Icardi.”
“If PSG decides not to take him up and he comes back the other way, then I think it would be a serious, serious issue for them because then they wouldn’t have the liquidity to do other things.”
“So it’s understandable if he’s being linked to other clubs. He does have a tremendous scoring rate.”
“I personally don’t think Chelsea would be a good match for them really at all, simply because of Icardi’s style, because of his work rate, because he’s so different to what Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud bring to the table.”
“He really is a supply-dependent striker, a very good one, but he’s somebody you need to create chances for.”
“That’s very different from someone like Abraham, who’s so busy.”
I don’t disagree with anything Marcotti has said here. With Neymar Jr. and Angel Di Maria, PSG possesses two of the best creative players in football. With Kylian Mbappé attracting the majority of the attention from defenders, Icardi is free to be a goal-poacher and a very good one at that. Chelsea just doesn’t have that kind of quality in their team and they need a different type of striker.
The last thing Inter Milan wants to do right now is find a new buyer for Icardi and I think PSG knows that. I think Icardi will remain in Paris but Leonardo, PSG’s sporting director, is trying to get the best price possible as the squad needs reinforcements elsewhere.
If the Icardi tract doesn’t work out, there’s always Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at Arsenal…
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