Sky: Chelsea are almost certain to lose money initially on £11m midfielder sale | OneFootball

Sources in Italy this morning reported on the various teams interested in signing Chelsea midfielder Cesare Casadei, and now we’ve got a more complete update from Sky Sports transfer guru Dharmesh Sheth.

He focuses on the team who appear to be closest to signing Casadei and outlines the shape of a deal which seems to be taking shape – albeit very slowly.

In his words, Lazio are “hopeful” they can sign the talented box to box midfielder before the January window closes, and are inching closer to finding common ground with Chelsea. The Blues have previously been claimed to be looking for huge sums north of €20m, but it seems they’re willing to accept a lower initial fee with a large sell-on fee.

For example, Sheth says that the Lazio and Chelsea are close to agreeing a permanent deal worth £11m – that would represent a £6m loss on the £17m we paid for Casadei in 2022. So if that’s the actual fee, we can only imagine what the sell-on would be. There’s no way Chelsea are letting the Italian talent leave for 2/3rds of what they paid for him. They want a profit, not a loss, and are under no pressure to sell if they don’t get what they want anyway.

“While the fee this month is likely to be less [than the £17m paid], Chelsea will insist on certain clauses and conditions for future sales,” Sheth confirms.

Chelsea need other bids to kick-start Casadei deal

Cesare Casadei with a Torino logo.

While Lazio lead the race, they’re not the only interested party. Torino and “two other clubs” not names by the Sky reporter are also interest in Casadei.

We wish they’d step their interest up a gear – not only would it likely force Lazio and others to raise their offer, it would also jump start this deal which has been dragging on rather tediously all month now.