Chelsea on the verge of losing control of exceptional €30m powerhouse’s future | OneFootball

CaughtOffside are the latest transfer news site to report on growing Premier League interest in Habib Diarra. Aston Villa and newly promoted Leeds United are both showing an interest in signing the Strasbourg midfielder.

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Diarra shines in excellent season for Strasbourg

Habib Diarra playing for Senegal. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

The 21 year old is an all action player in the middle of the park, and his exceptional play alongside Andrey Santos last season was a key part of the Alsatian side’s superb campaign under Liam Rosenior. He concluded the campaign with 9 G/A as they fell just short of an amazing Champions League finish.

No formal talks have taken place yet, but a €30m valuation is put on the Senegal international by this piece.

Everton, Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Frankfurt from the Bundesliga are also mentioned in the mix.

With this much interest, it’s going to be very difficult for the French side to hold out. BlueCo can hand over money to offer him a bigger contract which may buy them an extra year, but eventually he’s going to want a big move.

Chelsea must think long and hard about letting talented midfielder leave their control

Now maybe we’re just being greedy, because we’ve got a super stocked midfield right now. From Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez through Romeo Lavia to Andrey Santos and Dario Essugo, we’ve got depth and variety and quality all at a very young age.

Yet we still hate to see a top talent slip like Diarra slip though our fingers. Given we’ve currently got some control over his future, we’d love to see Chelsea somehow try to stay involved. That could involve them buying him and then loaning him out, or Strasbourg loaning him with a buy-back clause which could eventually be funded by BlueCo money if Chelsea want to bring him back into the fold.