£15m defender watched by Chelsea – but they may struggle to convince him to join | OneFootball

Boca Juniors are one of Argentina’s biggest clubs, and without doubt one of the footballing world’s greatest producers of talent. The top 5 leagues are full of players produced in Buenos Aires and surrounding areas.

So it’s no surprise to read that Chelsea have had scouts in place at the Bombonera stadium in recent months. HITC report in an exclusive that Chelsea, along with Manchester United, have their eyes on a few different prizes.

In fact, it’s surprising that so much of our focus has been Brazilian talent in the last couple of years, when Argentina produces just as much quality, at equally low prices. We bought Enzo Fernandez, one of River Plate, once he’s had 6 months at Benfica which increased his value astronomically, rather than getting him at source.

The player we are apparently most keen on is Aaron Anselmino. The teenage centre back has already started playing regularly in Boca’s first team, despite being just 18.

The new season is just underway in the Southern Hemisphere, with Anselmino already having featured twice in the Copa Sudamericana, South American equivalent of the Europa League. We would imagine any scouts down there will be using those games as a measuring stick to decide whether he’s ready for a step up to European football yet.

HITC claim he has a £15m release clause, which could make him a very tempting target for a number of teams.

Log jam

We fully believe Chelsea are interested in hoovering up this latest talent, but the question is how we convince him there’s a pathway at Stamford Bridge. We’ve bought a whole bunch of central defenders in the last few windows, and still haven’t really figured out what to do with them yet. It’s going to be a tough sell to Anselmino that he will get any minutes at all when there’s so many players only a few years older than him waiting their turn.

That’s compared to some of the other teams potentially linked – someone like Brighton or Newcastle could offer the young talent regular football with a clear record of having developed players and then sold them on to a bigger club down the line.

Perhaps Mauricio Pochettino will be able to sway his countryman. But for now, unless we see someone like Axel Disasi or Benoit Badiashile unexpectedly depart this summer, this looks like a move we will be keeping on the back-burner for now.