Player Profiles: Catching up

This week has been constant for Chelsea transfer news and developing transfers.

Good Morning All,

The window has been open for just over 3 days at the time of writing this article (Wednesday 4th, 8am UK) and WOW, what a first 3 days it has been.

DISCLAIMER; since the time of writing, different stories and reports have occurred which has sucked a little of my optimism but overall I am still slightly optimistic of signing the players mentioned below.

This is what I was hoping and wanting to see from the board and MORE.

So to recap; Dario Essugo, Liam Delap is done, Maignan is progressing quick, Gittens is progressing quick, Hato has agreed personal terms and club to club is going well & Ekitike has agreed personal terms and the fee is being negotiated.

This is going to be a mammoth player profile article consisting of Dario Essugo, Liam Delap, Mike Maignan, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens & Jorrel Hato. I released one of these on Hugo Ekitike last week which you can read here. These wont be quite as in-depth as the usual sole player articles but I will still provide the most important bits of info I can.

Lets get into it;

Dario Essugo

Player profile;

Age: 20

Nationality: Portugese (Uncapped)

Position: Defensive Midfielder (Right-footed)

Height: 5ft 10in

A holding midfielder by trade but has the ability to operate as a box-to-box no8 as well, Essugo joined Sporting’s academy at the age of 9, he went on to become the youngest ever Portuguese player to debut in the Champions League at the age of 16y and 268d.

He made his senior debut just 4 days after signing his pro contract, without even appearing for the under-23 or reserve sides and made himself the youngest debutant in Sporting’s history at 16y and 6d.

Dario spent the 24/25 season on loan at Las Palmas, playing 27 times in LaLiga scoring 1 goal.

Here is a brief overview of Essugo’s strong points, being 20 years old he has loads of room to improve in every facet of his game.

Verdict;

Essugo has been signed so that we have a Caicedo-esque profile at the club, he will be with the first team squad for the 25/26 season and I would imagine he will play cup games and allow Caicedo to rest at certain points.

He also has incredible potential himself and is ready for PL football from what I have seen of him.

Liam Delap

Player profile;

Age: 22

Nationality: English (Uncapped)

Position: Striker (Right-footed)

Height: 6ft 1in

Delap, a bully of a striker, a real live wire and physical presence. He has good goal scoring instincts, loves the physical battle and can be a real shithouse, something we’ve missed for a while. You will all know by now that I LOVE the player and have been calling for us to sign him.

I also, don’t think its fair on him or his development to be our only Striker signing, it is looking quite likely he will be partnered by Hugo Ekitike, which is quite frankly SCARY! Between them they have every facet of a top class Striker, with both having room to improve, compete and grow together.

Delap started his youth career at Derby County before being bought by Manchester City at 17 years old, in his time in the City academy it is well stated that he was managed by Enzo Maresca and played with the likes of Romeo Lavia & Cole Palmer.

He had a couple of average loan spells, where he was used predominantly as a right winger whilst he was developing physically, his most fruitful spell came under Strasbourg manager Liam Rosenior at Hull City, where he scored 8 in 31, whilst spending 2/3 of the season on the right wing. It was his 20m transfer to Ipswich last summer that really sparked his career as a striker into life, he bulked up through the summer has learnt how to use his body and physicality under the tutelage of Kieran McKenna and earnt himself this move after 12 PL goals for a very poor Ipswich team last season.

With the stats provided below it gives us a good barometer of the players strengths but we HAVE to remember the team he was playing in, not much of the ball and very little creativity and attacking phases.

Verdict;

I think you all know where I am heading with this, I LOVE the player, think he will be superb for us and I am VERY happy that it looks like we will be signing another Striker to partner him and share load. I do wish it was Osimhen joining him but I do really like Ekitike. Neither will be here to play as sub, both will want to compete and challenge each other to the highest level, EXCITING!!

Mike Maignan

Player profile;

Age: 29

Nationality: French (30 caps, No1 GK)

Position: Goalkeeper (Right-footed)

Height: 6ft 3in

Maignan rose through the academy at PSG, playing in their ‘B-side’ for 3 years, before making a move to Lille for just 1 million Euros in 2015, his first 2 seasons were spent as the no2 GK before he took the no1 spot at the start of 2012/18 season, since then his rise to the top has been for all to see, consistently one of the best goalkeepers in Europe across the last 7/8 years and in 2021 he earnt his move to AC Milan, where has been for 4 years.

He is a winner, he has won the league in both France and Italy, as well as winning domestic trophy in Italy, he has also won the Nations League with France.

This is the EXACT transfer we have been crying out for! Leadership, Experience, Quality & a Winner! To make it even sweeter he is going to cost just 25m which is the bargain of the summer if we pull that off.

He is also the perfect GK to play Maresca’s style, he is superb with his feet, quick off his line but also a match winner with his class and his saving ability.

A goalkeeper that has a presence, claims crosses and fills a goal, I must be dreaming…..

Veridct;

ABSOLUTELY over the moon, IF this goes through this is an absolute game changer for us, it makes me instantly more confident on the direction of the club, the ambitions of the board and the chances of success returning in the near future.

Jamie Bynoe-Gittens

Player profile;

Age: 20

Nationality: English (Uncapped)

Position: Left-Winger (Right-footed)

Height: 5ft 9in

Gittens, a product of Manchester City’s academy, briefly on the books of Chelsea as a young child, he joined Reading academy aged 9 and was there for 5 years until City swooped at the age of 14, he stayed at City for just 2 years before Dortmund bought him at just 16 years old.

He joined Dortmund during the Covid pandemic which got his career there off to a slow start as well as a torn ligament injury which kept him on the sidelines for quite a while. in the 21/22 season he was back and on fire for Dortmund’s youth team, which earnt him a call up to make his Dortmund debut at just 17 and a half and he hasn’t left the first team since.

He has now over 100 senior appearances and just come off his best ever season for G/A of 17.

Verdict;

He was getting a lot of unfair stick online over the last couple of days, but I think people realise this is a good deal at 30m for a player that is effectively replacing Jadon Sancho in the Chelsea squad, for 5m more than what Sancho would have cost us.

As long as we sign a more senior/developed player that can play off the left wing during the summer window then I am really happy with this deal for a player with a huge amount of potential!

Jorrel Hato

Player profile;

Age: 19

Nationality: Dutch (6 caps)

Position: Left Back & Centre Back (Left-footed)

Height: 6ft 0in

Hato is a versatile defender, with a huge amount of potential, highly rated amongst Europe’s elite clubs and scouts, he was signed to Sparta Rotterdam at just 7 years old, he moved to Ajax at 12 years old and has been there ever since.

Across his senior career he has a real split of appearances between Left Back and Centre Back, with 68 appearances at LB and 41 at CB.

He is an extremely progressive defender with his passing numbers being amongst the best in Europe and his pass completion in the top 1%.

A perfect player for our squad, Maresca loves versatile players, he will be perfect cover for Cucu and able to cover Levi as well.

Verdict;

The type of singing I love, cheap, under the radar, perfect squad player and super potential.

I think this is a top signing IF we get it over the line. Perfect cover for Cucu and to be able to cover at CB as well will give him loads of minutes.

Overall Verdict

We are showing some incredible ambition in the early stages of this FIRST transfer window, if we manage to pull all 5 of these off as well as Ekitike then we have gone a long way to doing what we needed to this summer.

I must say IF and it is a HUGE IF these come off I will be massively impressed by the ambition and decisiveness shown to get these done and done early in the window.

Playing the hypothetical game, we would only require a starting CB and a starting LW in my view to be complete.

How do you all feel about this?

Thanks for reading.

Luke Rushbrook