Former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf fears his old club are repeating a familiar transfer mistake with their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Gittens.
The Blues had hoped to secure the signing of the 20-year-old winger prior to the start of the Club World Cup but failed to agree a fee with the Bundesliga club.
Talks were resurrected earlier this week, however, and Chelsea are now understood to be close to agreeing a £51million deal.
Lebouef, however, fears Chelsea haven’t learned their lesson having been burned before having attempted to raid Germany for the league’s best young talent with mixed results.
‘Skeptical is who I am and where I am,’ Leboeuf told ESPN FC. ‘So many times we have had this with Timo Werner, Mudryk, Nkunku and even Kai Havertz.
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‘So many times we saw players coming, especially from the Bundesliga. They come very young and belonging to what I call a family club.
‘Dortmund is a big club, a great club but still a type of club where you take care of the players.
Is £51m too much to pay for Jamie Gittens?
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Yes
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No
‘When he’s at Chelsea it’s going to be a different story we want to see something immediately and that’s hard when you’re 20 years old to settle down. You’ve moved from a championship to another so wait and see.
‘We’re going to wait and see. I wish the best to the guy but I have to be skeptical because of what I’ve seen in the past.’
Gittens’ soon-to-be new teammate Liam Delap, meanwhile, hopes there are plenty more goals to come after scoring his first for Chelsea to help them into the last 16 of the Club World Cup.
The former Ipswich striker was on target as the Blues beat Esperance Tunis 3-0 in Philadelphia to secure the runners-up spot in Group D.
The Blues will now face Benfica – surprise winners of Group C, ahead of Bayern Munich – in the next round in Charlotte on Saturday.
Delap’s goal came moments after defender Tosin Adarabioyo had opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time and put Chelsea into a commanding position.
The 22-year-old took a pass from Enzo Fernandez, turned past one defender and flicked outside another before calmly rolling the ball into the net, although goalkeeper Bechir Ben Said made minimal effort to stop the shot.
It represented Chelsea’s first return on their £30million investment in Delap, who reportedly snubbed Manchester United to move to Stamford Bridge.
Delap told the club’s website, chelseafc.com: ‘Obviously it is a really happy feeling and hopefully it is the first of many.
‘I spoke to Enzo (Maresca) and he told me when he gets the ball to just run. It was a great pass and luckily it went in.
‘I love playing football and to play for such a good team is a great feeling.
‘We had to win to get through and we are all happy we are into the next stage.’