OFFICIAL: Chelsea winger completes £52m move at last | OneFootball

Noni Madueke has left Chelsea and joined Arsenal on a permanent deal, the club have just confirmed.

The winger leaves for a fee which Fabrizio Romano has reported will be £48m plus £4m in potential bonuses.

We’ve had a lot of transfer dealings with Arsenal in the last few years, but this is different. There is without doubt something slightly strange about selling a first team regular at a prime age to our rivals.

Chelsea choose to cash in on former PSV winger

Noni Madueke on the attack against Palmeiras. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Madueke’s future at Chelsea always felt in doubt, even after a year where he was first choice winger for Enzo Maresca for large spells. The Italian coach always spoke positively about the former PSV man, but did drop him twice for a lack of intensity, once in training and once in a game.

It looks like there’s going to be a shift towards using more of our new strikers and central attackers, with Cole Palmer deployed on the right.

Madueke leaves Chelsea with a mixed legacy

We were never the biggest Madueke fans – we’re sure he’s a lovely person, but we found him pretty grating as a character, and his play was often extremely frustrating.

However in many ways that’s the nature of being a winger. You’re out there to try things and take risks, knowing that they may not come off.

There were also clear signs of improvement through his time at the club, and if he ups his game again next year we could easily be left wondering why we’ve given up on him so soon.

It’s one of those cases where you have to trust the manager and the sporting directors that they’ve chosen the right moment to cash in, and to judge the likes of Jamie Gittens and Estevao Willian ready to fill in.