Centre Forward Chatter - Abraham, Werner, Giroud, Haaland?
A deeper look into Chelsea's current forward conundrum. Tammy contract, does Giroud stay, do we go for the next superstar in Erling Haaland?
In Chelsea’s last Premier League game, zero goals were scored between current first choice Olivier Giroud, and substitute Tammy Abraham. The question now is, do we need another option in the forward ranks?
To start the year, Tammy Abraham was the clear number one choice for Frank Lampard in the CF position, with new signing Timo Werner often deployed on the left side of the front three. Olivier Giroud was the clear second/third choice and wasn’t getting many chances, which led to disgruntled public comments from Giroud and his agent (more so the latter) with further support from the French head coach Didier Deschamps, with eyes on the 2021 European Championships.
Fast forward to the past couple of weeks, after a combined five goals against Rennes and Sevilla in the Champions League, plus the goal against Leeds in the Premier League, Giroud quickly established himself as the first choice in recent times.
However, neither player could stop Chelsea from falling to defeat against Everton this past Saturday. Many were happy to see Giroud starting, deservedly so with his recent form, but he was very quiet at Goodison Park, with Abraham not providing the needed spark off the bench. Many Chelsea supporters would continue to argue we need Timo Werner’s return to centre forward, for another day perhaps…
Well, what’s the latest with Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham off the field? As widely reported, Olivier Giroud wants to play, and he is doing as of now.
I can confirm that Giroud is feeling “more optimistic” on the idea of staying with Chelsea past January, after the recent increase of starts/minutes on the pitch. Frank Lampard is a big fan of Olivier and of course, wants him to stay at least until the end of the season.
If things continue how they are, expect to see Olivier in Chelsea blue for the next few months.
With Tammy, talks of a new contract have been ushered to the background for now, with no rush on either side to sign a contract immediately. However, Tammy is happy at Chelsea, Frank again rates him, and I would expect Tammy to be rewarded with a new contract reflecting his current contribution to the team, and for him to sign it in the near future.
Well, what about Erling Haaland?
Don’t worry, I always planned on mentioning him in this particular piece. As I confirmed in the summer transfer window, Haaland has being scouted by Chelsea, and the club has made Haaland’s agent Mino Raiola aware they would like to be “kept updated” with Haaland’s next moves. Chelsea are interested in Haaland and he is on their “list” of targets. However, this doesn’t mean Chelsea are front runners, nor has a price been discussed.
As you may have seen, there are conflicting reports on whether Haaland’s release clause is able to be triggered in 2021 or 2022.
Recently, Bild’s Christian Falk (@cfbayern) and our friend Fabrizio Romano reported it was the latter, which I also believe is correct.
If 2022 is the case, this would allow many of the super clubs further time to financially recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and have a stronger chance of acquiring the sport’s next young superstar. All of the world’s elite clubs are interested and would be interested in signing Haaland, Chelsea amongst that list.
For what it is worth, I personally do not believe we will sign Erling Haaland. However, at the time of writing, it isn’t impossible. Let the dreamers dream…