Exclusive: Aston Villa got an incredible deal from Chelsea on Carney Chukwuemeka – Dan Bardell
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Aston Villa did “great business” to sell Carney Chukwuemeka to Chelsea for £20million in the circumstances says Dan Bardell.
After mounting transfer speculation this summer, as the teenager kept from signing a new contract at the club, it suddenly became clear that he would be heading for Stamford Bridge, as was announced on 4 August by the Villans.
Bardell believes that while they may have preferred to do a deal with a foreign side, with the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona [Mail] thought to be interested, the fee they managed to get from a Premier League rival was good enough that the club can be very pleased with the developments.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News he said: “I was surprised to find out that he was a Chelsea fan because that wasn’t information that was particularly out there.So when he moved and then he announced that I was surprised by that.
“From speaking to Villa maybe a month or so ago it sounded like the vibe coming out of the club was that whatever happened Carney Chukwuemeka would see out the season with Villa.
“The contract had been on the table for a year, wasn’t looking like he was going to sign it. The money he wanted felt a little bit unreasonable for someone that had had two Premier League starts – that’s my opinion rather than the club’s.
“[It looked like] they would persevere with it. Maybe if he broke into the team he’d sign the contract. But then it’s catch-22 because you don’t want to develop someone that you know is then going to leave at the end of the season.
“And I think Villa had probably made peace with the fact that he was going to go at the end of the season, and they’d receive minimal compensation.
“I think Chelsea coming in with a massive bid of £20million, I think Villa will be really pleased with that.
“There’s a good chance that he’ll go on and become a really good footballer, a really good Premier League player, play for England.
“But there’s also a chance that he doesn’t fulfil that potential, it’s happened many, many times.
“And Villa probably made peace with the situation. They made him a big offer. They made him an offer that was going to make him the highest-paid teenager in the Premier League.
“He’s still going to get that at Chelsea, but Villa did everything they could really, it just didn’t seem like he wanted to sign.
“And I think that getting £20million for someone who’s got a year left on their contract, when I think I’ve read that Villa would get £400,000 in compensation if he’d left in a year’s time, to get £20million I think Villa will be absolutely delighted, and I think that it’s great business.
“They probably would have [preferred him to go abroad] because if he comes in and takes the Premier League by storm then there’s a danger that Villa might look a bit silly, but I don’t think [foreign clubs] were ever going to come in and offer the kind of money that Chelsea had offered.
“If he’d gone abroad there’s every chance that in a couple of years he comes back to the Premier League at one of the top six anyway, so they’d probably have preferred it but I don’t think it makes that much difference.
“I just think Villa have got an incredible deal to get £20million in the situation they were in. It was looking like there was no wins to come out of it for Villa really, but that £20million I would say is a massive victory.”
The fact that the England under-19s captain didn’t end up becoming a real star at Villa Park of course has to be viewed with some disappointment.
But once it became clear that wouldn’t happen the move that was eventually made was probably just about the best conceivable outcome.
And after bringing in big-name players for relatively little up front cost it has boosted the club’s net spend as well.
It isn’t usual for a side to lose one of their best young prospects, having offered them a new contract, and end up feeling good about things but that is pretty much what has happened this summer.
In other Aston Villa news, the summer has got Dan Bardell dreaming of the club finally winning a trophy again.