Left out of Chelsea’s squad for the Premier League season opener, Michy Batshuayi’s future was placed in doubt by Frank Lampard’s decision, and it wasn’t helped when he wasn’t called upon on Wednesday evening in Turkey.
On the bench but never coming on, the Belgian now needs to decide what he wants to do this season, as it’s clear he is third down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge.
Does he fight for his spot or does he seek yet another move abroad to guarantee himself more minutes?
If he chooses the latter, then AS Roma in Italy are prepared to welcome him, as both Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport mention their interest in the player.
This has been hovering over the past few days on the rumour mill, but the former of the two newspapers claim Franco Baldini, once Tottenham’s technical director and now Roma owner James Pallotta’s right-hand man, is ‘working on’ a possible deal to bring him to Italy’s capital.
However, before that happens, they would need to offload Patrik Schick, with both newspapers mentioning the Czech Republic international’s exit as the catalyst for a Batshuayi deal, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Some clubs have expressed interest, but nothing concrete so far, with Borussia Dortmund the strongest link.
A
s for Batshuayi in all this, Corriere dello Sport suggest that if the player were to leave Stamford Bridge, he would prefer to do so permanently, having already gone out on loan three times over the past couple of seasons.
A lot could depend on how many strikers Lampard feels he needs for the current campaign, but if it’s three, then there’s little chance of the Belgian going anywhere.
