All sorts of things have happened at Stamford Bridge since Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly took over the reins of the club, and most of the decisions made by Chelsea’s leading men have been wrong. This was also confirmed in the case of Ian Maatsen, whom Chelsea gave up for ‘pocket change’, relying on the ‘fragile’ Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella, who even played some games as a defensive midfielder.As reported by journalist David Ornstein from The Athletic, the club from West London agreed on the transfer of Maatsen to Aston Villa for slightly more than 40,000,000 euros. That’s not even a lot of money, considering he’s a 22-year-old who did very well on loan at Dortmund and was a Champions League finalist.##NAJAVA_MECA_8168017##Dortmund tried to buy out Maatsen fully, but the two sides could not agree on the amount of the compensation. In Westphalia, they tried to reduce the compensation, since there was a clause of 40,000,000 euros in the contract, at Chelsea they did not agree to that and Aston Villa showed up to quickly steal the defender from the German club.Unai Emery, who is making big plans for the Champions League, wants Maatsen for some time now, and the left-back position was one of his priorities for the summer transfer window. Now, it remains for Aston Villa and the player to agree on the financial details, but apparently, there should be no problem realizing the transfer.The Dutch defender had a contract with Chelsea until June 2026, and in Dortmund he was one of the main players in Edin Terzic’s system. Interestingly, the Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman did not initially include him in the 26-man squad for EURO2024, but then called him up after Teun Koopmeiners and Frankie de Jong had to leave the national team camp due to injuries.🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Aston Villa reach agreement with Chelsea to sign left-back Ian Maatsen. Fee for 22yo Dutch youth int’l just north of now-expired Borussia Dortmund-specific £35m release clause. Personal terms in place on 6yr contract @TheAthleticFC #AVFC #CFC https://t.co/njmDQHF3ZB— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) June 19, 2024 They clearly didn’t see a future for him at Chelsea which is almost shocking considering the rotation on the left side. Ben Chilwell has had major problems with injuries for two years and is more out of the field than playing, while Marc Cucurella did not prove to be a signing worthy of €60,000,000 that was paid to Brighton. There is even less logic in this deal, because at Stamford Bridge they said that they have no need to sell players due to ‘sorting out’ the accounts for Financial Fair Play. The sale of Maatsen shows otherwise.Admittedly, the Dutchman was not in the Chelsea coach’s plans even when he was there. He played only 16 games, only three as a starter and one of those was in the Premier League.
