Papy Djilobodji: A buy by any other name would be just as panicked

The title for this piece is a play on a famous Shakespeare quote, but it’s still difficult to determine whether the saga that was Chelsea’s attempts to buy a centre back this transfer window were a tragedy or a comedy.

After chasing John Stones for the entire window, playing cat and mouse with Everton, only to be told that for once Bill Kenwright was not to sell up, led a desperate search for another defensive option, a search that grew even more desperate as Chelsea continuously leaked goals and John Terry was sent off at The Hawthorns. Links to Aymeric Laporte, the French Basque 21 year old currently at Athletic Bilbao, and suddenly on Deadline Day to PSG’s Marquinhos, the 21 year old Brazillian, both were fruitless as the hunt for a successor to JT and a future partner to Kurt Zouma rumbled on. Both of these things Djilobodji is not.

Albeit I have never seen him play, at 26, with just 12 Senegal caps to his name, he doesn’t seem to be a top class signing for the now, in the same vein as Fabregas or Pedro, and he’s clearly not one for the future. This signing screams Khalid Bouladrouz, or Tal Ben Haim: cheap backup that will probably be sold after a season for a small profit. However, for a club supposedly in crisis as the media perceive it to be, we don’t need backup or profit. We need a top class long term option. We potentially have those available.

Tomas Kalas, superb in that infamous win at Anfield, kept a clean sheet against the top strike partnership in the league on his first league start. Andreas Christensen, impressive in the cup game at home to Bradford, despite the loss, and can play both centre and right back. However, neither of these players are at Cobham, but on loan, at Middlesbrough and Gladbach respectively. And it’s frustrating that we have the best youth set up in the country and one of the best in Europe, one that has won the FA Youth Cup and UEFA Youth League last season, one that kids around the world are tripping over themselves trying to sign for, yet when someone looks good enough, they get loaned out, and not given a look in.

If we were going to sign a centre back, it needed to be someone better than those two. Stones, Laporte, Marquinhos; all are better quality, but didn’t come. If we can’t get that calibre of player, and are instead looking for a backup for Terry, Zouma and Cahill, then look from within. There are those aforementioned two, potentially even Jake Clarke-Salter who impressed me whilst winning both Youth trophies last season. Why bring in someone who Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich, Newcastle and Aston Villa were reportedly interested in but didn’t sign. The latter two especially, in addition to Crystal Palace, have heavily scouted Ligue 1 this window, and decided against signing Djilobodji. The signs don’t look great.

I’m happy to be proven wrong. As soon as Djilobodji crosses that line with a blue shirt on, he’ll have my full backing. I hope he goes on to be a success whenever he plays for us. I’m just disappointed about the powers that be messing up the Stones deal, as he was the one who could really have improved our squad, have been moulded into a JT 2.0, and formed a great partnership with Zouma for the next decade or so. However, it wasn’t to be, and nor was Laporte or Marquinhos. So, Papy Djilobodji, I guess we’ll have to call you Dave too.