Sent to Napoli for the season in order to get the game time he wouldn’t be given at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s Tiemoué Bakayoko will be returning to the London club.
There was never any official deal between the two sides regarding a permanent move, although reports of a gentlemen’s agreement did surface before miserably disappearing when the Frenchman’s form dipped.
Since he will be heading back to Stamford Bridge, there will be a chance for Thomas Tuchel, who had no say in the player’s absence from his squad, to evaluate Bakayoko, although the general feeling is that Chelsea, as a whole, want rid to recoup some money.
With that in mind, Gianluca Nani, a sporting director whose last role was at Reading FC in 2018, told Radio Kiss Kiss what he believed was going to happen to the defensive midfielder in the summer.
Relayed by CalcioNapoli1926, he said: “Bakayoko is a player with great physical strength, but it depends a lot on the type of football you want to play. In England he did so-so, but he played well in France and at Milan. If Chelsea ask for a figure on Bakayoko, the Blues are in charge. Perhaps the management is well aware that in English football, someone like him can have a market.
“I don’t allow myself to advise Napoli to redeem him or not. Napoli have a very good sporting director in Cristiano Giuntoli”.
Bought from AS Monaco for around £36m, there is little chance Bakayoko will bring Chelsea that much in the summer.
If they can even get half of that, our guess is they will be happy enough.
