£100m superstar is a tempting target for Chelsea – but they may end up stuck in the Sterling situation again | OneFootball

Our writer Simon Phillips yesterday put forward a really interesting exclusive on his Substack where he mentioned Chelsea interest in two players – Jack Grealish and Xavi Simons.

Those two are owned by Man City and PSG respectively, so clearly we’re still operating at the top level of transfers – at least in theory. Although we find it hard to imagine that we’d be able to summon up the resources to sign either of them.

Grealish is an interesting case. We tried to sign him before he went to City. Phillips has a positive take on the move, saying the England international would be a “very smart signing” and bring “a lot of what we need and are missing.”

We’re inclined to agree. He’s got tons of Premier League experience, he’s got tons of quality, he’s got that bit of needle and fight in him, plus he’s a big guy who can get stuck in. At Man City he’s been turned into a bit of a Pep Guardiola robot, and it’s easy to forget the flair and creativity he brought when he was the main man at Aston Villa, but a move to Chelsea might be able to restore it.

The biggest stumbling block

As ever, the major issue right now it money. Man City paid £100m for Grealish, and while they wouldn’t expect to get that back, they’re not going to let him go cheap.

It’s an interesting comparison to the Raheem Sterling situation. City were happy to let him come to us, as he was a player on the decline who they felt they could upgrade on. Now we’re stuck with Sterling on the books for £300,000 a week while we dream up scenarios where we can sell him to Saudi Arabia in order to create space and funds for a new player.

We wonder if the same wouldn’t end up happening with Grealish…