Chelsea have been told that Alejandro Garnacho should be the player to leave if the Blues are weighing up exits this summer. The winger has struggled to make a sustained impact at Stamford Bridge since arriving and will soon be presented with a new boss in Xabi Alonso.
Garnacho, 21, joined Chelsea from Manchester United in a £40million deal last August, having fallen out of favour under Ruben Amorim to bring an unsavoury end to his time at Old Trafford. Garnacho scored eight goals and made four assists in his debut season in west London, but he found the net just once in 24 appearances in the Premier League and once in nine Champions League outings.
That has seen the Argentinean with an uncertain future once again. Alonso is set to put his own stamp on a team that finished 10th in the Premier League last season.
And that could leave United with an opportunity. Garnacho's exit from the club saw the United hierarchy include a 10 per cent sell-on clause after failing to land the £50m they initially wanted. If Chelsea can make their money back, it would see a tidy injection of funds into United's transfer kitty.
Former Premier League midfielder Danny Murphy believes that Chelsea will be best off selling Garnacho over former United target Liam Delap. Garnacho remains under contract until 2032, so he could yet be afforded an opportunity by former Real Madrid boss Alonso. A bigger question could be finding a suitor for the young star.
"I think any manager coming in has to give players a chance so I think he'll want to look at them and see what they've got," Murphy told the Metro on behalf of NetBet football. "The other thing is that there might not be other clubs who want to take them with the wages they are on or pay the fee for them."
"That is just the dynamic of football politics and transfers, you can easily say 'they haven't done very well let's move them on', but where to, and for how much?"
"I think Alejandro Garnacho has struggled, and the fans haven't taken to him. A lot of Chelsea's wide players have struggled to be honest, if you look at their front line, it's only really Joao Pedro who has done well."
"If one was going to leave, I think it would more likely be Garnacho than Liam Delap. Delap is a young lad, and he brings some characteristics that Chelsea don't have. He's different to Joao Pedro so I think Xabi Alonso will give him a crack."
