I want to start by saying that if Chelsea signed Raphinha and he joined us this summer, I’d be OK with that. I rate him as a player, and of course I’d have been pleased if a top-quality player joins our club.
However, I’ve also remained vocal in the fact that I didn’t want to sign him the moment it became clear that he doesn’t only have a dream to play for Barcelona, like a lot of players do, he was/is literally desperate to play for them and will pretty much do anything to. So, that’s reason one that I am pleased that we didn’t sign him.
To add to this further, if he DID end up joining Chelsea, you can almost guarantee that in one or two seasons time, he will be putting in a transfer request to join Barcelona once they had raided another piggy bank or shook another money tree, that only seems to grow in Barcelona by the way… Odd that.
I am not stupid enough to believe that every player should want Chelsea as their first choice, but I at least want them to not be so openly desperate to join another club over us and just settle for us as a backup option.
The second reason is the fee being quoted. £63m for Raphinha? Yes, he’s good, but he certainly isn’t that good. I’d have been disappointed if we spent that much on him, so another reason to be pleased.
Mike Keegan says Barca are set to pay £63m for Raphinha after selling TV rights. #cfc https://t.co/4V3WYsV69b
— CFCDaily (@CFCDaily) July 10, 2022
This might sound like a bitter article from an upset Blues fan, but all anyone has to do it scroll my tweets of recent weeks and you’ll see that I am genuinely pleased that Raphinha doesn’t look like he will end up at our club. Personally, I’d like them to at least really want to come to Chelsea, and I’d very much want them to commit to the 5-year contract at least that they’ll be getting. Raphinha would not.
