Ornstein comments show that Chelsea may still be able to keep €30m full back who is shining in Bundesliga | OneFootball

David Ornstein’s Q and A for the Athletic this afternoon had an interesting thought in it.

He was asked whether Chelsea would pursue a left back this summer as Marc Cucurella had disappointed and Ben Chilwell continued to struggle with injury.

He says he thinks they will sell a left back this summer, and it could be Ian Maatsen. We had taken it as read that the left back, currently at Borussia Dortmund on loan, doing really well, would go. But Ornstein opens the door to the idea he might not already be effectively gone.

Given Mauricio Pochettino didn’t really give him a chance, we can see Maatsen being keen to go. But it’s immensely frustrating, given that on recent form he’s the best player at the club in that position. He’s so attacking that Pochettino treated him as a winger – but the formation could have been built to accommodate that as a full back.

Of course, we all know how amortisation works at this point, and how it incentivises club to sell players (because the incoming money is registered right away) and then buy replacements (whose cost is spread over their contract). Maatsen is valued at €30m by Transfermarkt, and that continues to climb.

That, combined with the way that a homegrown player has no transfer fee to consider, means Chelsea are in the weird position where their accounts are helped if they sell the left back they already have and buy a new one.

Whether they will have the financial leeway to do what Ornstein suggests and simply keep Maatsen, we will have to see.