The date set for massive Chelsea transfer could turn into a PR disaster for Blues | OneFootball

Spanish paper AS are very much hooked up on the Estevao Willian to Chelsea deal, and today their writer Eduardo Burgos Rodriguez has dropped another slice of info on the deal.

He says that the deal will be signed “this week,” finally putting a concrete date on the move which has been all but confirmed for a few days now. He adds that Chelsea had scouts watching the 17 year old’s performance against Independiente del Valle last week, and that the final deal works out at €65m if all the clauses and add-ons are ultimately met.

Estevao Willian celebrates with a Championship medal.

A potential PR bungle

The actual date of the signing is pretty immaterial in footballing terms as Willian is going to stay in South America with his current team for at least one more year. But it does have some interesting PR effects.

Of course announcing the signing of one of the world’s most coveted young players is a big coup for the owners and the sporting directors overall. But there’s a potential PR backlash too. If, as this article claims, they announce the Willian deal this week, it will really colour the perceptions of what happens in the next month.

We all know that the deadline for balancing the books for this season is on the 30th of June, so the important sales we’re looking to make have to be made before then. The vastly unpopular moves to sell Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah, if they happen, will be even harder to swallow if the club have just announced another teenage arrival weeks before. The “need” to sell important first team players is a lot less believable when the team has just dropped huge cash on a player who won’t be able to contribute on the pitch at all for a minimum of 18 months.