Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has been urged to give Armando Broja a real chance at being able to replace Romelu Lukaku for the 2022/23 season and at the same time enact revenge on West Ham over their Declan Rice stance.
Whether or not the Blues sign a new out-and-out No 9 this summer to replace the already gone Lukaku remains to be seen. The Understanding is that manager Tuchel is set to bring in versatile forwards like Raheem Sterling and Raphinha, who like Kai Havertz, can play in any position across the front three. This would in essence prevent the chance of an expensive mistake occurring for the second summer in a row as the quest to fill the No 9 jersey goes on. With both Andrea Belotti and Gianluca Scamacca two big names that are available for transfers this summer, the old Chelsea under Roman Abramovich may have moved to sign one of the Serie A options.
However, new owner Todd Boehly wants the club to become smarter with how they spend their money in the transfer market and this could mean looking to options closer to home in the academy set-up which has had a lot of money invested throughout the previous regime. One of the shining lights that is attracting much interest from various Premier League clubs this summer is striker Broja. After a breakthrough season in 2021/22 with Southampton which saw him attain a total of 10 goal contributions in all competitions, no wonder Ralph Hasenhuttl's side are alongside the likes of West Ham and Newcastle in openly expressing their interests in the Albanian.
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The Hammers seem to be the current frontrunners alongside the Toon at this moment in time with the 20-year-old reportedly open to the transfer if he doesn't see enough game-time opportunities handed to him on a plate next season under Tuchel.
football.london understands that Tuchel himself is very keen to look at the Slough-born forward in the upcoming pre-season calendar which gets underway this weekend. A decision will be made in due course as to whether or not the German sees Broja as part of his first-team plans for 2022/23.
“They will come back for sure. I want to have them in pre-season," Tuchel said at the backend of last season. “We will decide in pre-season what goes on. It is heavily up to Broja and Gallagher - and how they do”. Regardless of what the Chelsea manager eventually decides, former Blues defender Glen Johnson believes Southampton's number 18 for last season deserves a chance to step up to the mantle left by Lukaku.
"I think Chelsea are going to be reluctant to spend scary money again considering what happened with the Romelu Lukaku signing," Johnson told GGRECON. "If it was up to me, then I'd give Armando Broja a chance rather than spending £80 million on a replacement. I'd rather get it wrong with a player that I've already got, rather than get it wrong by spending £80 million."
"Broja is technically good in front of goal, but I don't know how good he is yet. He did score some fantastic goals for Southampton but, let's face it, Southampton aren't Chelsea. He's going to get more goal-scoring opportunities at Chelsea and he's technically good enough to score more next season."
Keeping the striker around would prove to be a sweet tonic to many Chelsea supporters who are annoyed at West Ham for once more yet again pricing the Blues and others out of a potential Rice transfer amid an immovable £150million asking price.
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