It is being widely reported today that Bournemouth have accepted a £41m offer for former Chelsea defender Nathan Ake.
This is relevant to the Blues for two reasons – firstly because they have a buy-back clause in the Dutchman’s deal with the Cherries (as reported by Football.London here), and secondly because they are also on the lookout for a centre back.
🍒 BREAKING: @afcbournemouth have accepted a £41 million bid for Nathan Aké from @ManCity #afcb
— Kris Temple (@kristemple) July 30, 2020
So if City are willing to fork out £41m and Chelsea can get him for less, why are the Blues letting him go, thus ending their chances of ever getting him back?
One can only imagine there are two factors at play. They clearly don’t want Ake in their team, or they’d be buying him now. Perhaps they think he is to similar to the options they already have, and not the kind of grizzled physical leader the team lacks more than anything else?
Or maybe even more likely, they have some else in mind already. That’s the thought that will get fans really excited. It’s hard to imagine them letting a quality defender at a reasonable fee slip through their fingers unless they had something even more promising lined up.
