Why Chelsea want to sign older players

Chelsea are targeting deals for Maxence Lacroix, Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson - and the ages of the experienced trio seem to signal a major change in transfer tactics from the Blues.

At 26, it could be said that Crystal Palace and France defender Lacroix is in his prime, but the £52m target is still notably older than other recent Blues signings.

It has been two years since Chelsea signed a player older than Lacroix, and Tosin Adarabioyo was only marginally older when he arrived three months before turning 27.

Meanwhile, Brighton striker Welbeck is 35 and keen to move to Stamford Bridge, and Brentford and England midfielder Henderson is 36.

Welbeck’s potential arrival could mean he replaces 23-year-old Liam Delap in the first-team picture.

That is despite Delap having been considered one of the Premier League’s most exciting young strikers when Chelsea signed him from Ipswich Town last year.

So does this signal a deliberate change in recruitment strategy - prioritising experience over youth? And what might Chelsea have learned from recent seasons?

In the months that followed the club’s takeover four years ago, then manager Thomas Tuchel went on a spending spree.

His first major signing was Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling - aged 27 at the time - for up to £50m including add-ons. After winning four Premier League titles at City and helping England reach the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, there was much excitement.

Sterling at Chelsea didn’t work out though. Despite moments of brilliance, Sterling struggled for form and fitness as the team went on to finish 12th in the 2022-23 season.

For a player reportedly earning over £300,000 a week, his performances fell well short of expectations. Sterling eventually left on a free transfer in January 2026.

Kalidou Koulibaly’s arrival from Napoli for £33m also didn’t end well. Rated at the time as one of European club football’s top centre-backs, the Senegalese player - then 31 - was out of the door after just one season, joining Al-Hilal.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is another experienced player whose time at Stamford Bridge was short-lived. The former AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal striker signed from Barcelona for £10.3m on the final day of the summer transfer window - just days before Tuchel’s sacking.

Aubameyang - 33 when he joined - struggled to find form or game time under subsequent bosses Graham Potter and Frank Lampard and, like Sterling, ended up leaving the club on a free transfer.

After such a poor return from their investment, it is perhaps no surprise that there was a shift in recruitment policy, as Chelsea switched their focus to signing younger players.

Chelsea made a major investment in a World Cup winner in January 2023 when they signed Argentina star Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for a then-British record fee of £107m. The move came just two weeks after his 22nd birthday.

Across the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Fernandez registered an impressive 24 assists in all competitions - including the Club World Cup - trailing only Bruno Fernandes and Mohamed Salah among Premier League players.

Chelsea made another nine-figure move just seven months later to sign Moises Caicedo - then 21 - from Brighton.

His £100m price tag - rising to a potential £115m - seemed hard to justify at first as the Ecuadorian had a slow start at Stamford Bridge.

Since then, Caicedo has established himself as one of the Premier League’s leading midfielders.

Caicedo was the joint leader for interceptions in the Premier League last season (59, the same number as James Garner of Everton).

The initial £40m the club paid Manchester City for Cole Palmer - also 21 at the time in September 2023 - has also looked like money well spent.

Palmer was the club’s top scorer in his first season.

Only Erling Haaland (76), Salah (54) and Ollie Watkins (51) have scored more goals than Palmer, with 47, in the Premier League since he joined.

Then there are the signings that haven’t worked out.

Mykhailo Mudryk was 22 when he joined Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk for an initial fee of £62m, potentially rising to £89m including add-ons. The Ukraine winger, now 25, has been sidelined for over 18 months after an “adverse finding in a routine urine test” led to a provisional suspension in December 2024.

The winger has since been served with a four-year ban by the Football Association and has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Joao Felix struggled to make an impact during two stints at Chelsea. His first loan spell in 2023 at the age of 23 started with a red card in his first game.

A permanent move followed a year later but he struggled to justify the fee - somewhere in the region of £45m - and scored just once in 12 Premier League games before being sold to Al-Nassr.

After joining from Leicester for about £70m at the age of 21, Wesley Fofana’s time at Chelsea has been plagued by injury.

The France international, who was not selected for his country’s World Cup squad, could be under scrutiny as the club look to reduce the size of their squad.

For a club to have spent as much as Chelsea, it is no surprise fans might be frustrated with the returns - or lack of them.

The 12th-placed Premier League finish in 2022-23 - the first season since the takeover by the BlueCo consortium - was clearly a big disappointment.

Improvements followed, with sixth and fourth in the next two campaigns signalling strides in the right direction, but finishing 10th last season was another big blow.

Since 2022, Chelsea have won two trophies: the Conference League and the Club World Cup.

But for owners with such big ambitions, they will surely feel like their expectations haven’t yet been met.

If his previous managerial approach is anything to go by, Xabi Alonso favours a blend of youth and experience.

The Spaniard signed four players over the age of 27 for the 2023-24 season at Bayer Leverkusen. They included Granit Xhaka and Alejandro Grimaldo - two key players in their Bundesliga title-winning side.

Another four players over the age of 27 came the following season.

It could be a similar story now at Chelsea.

Owner Behdad Eghbali said Chelsea would “tweak” their model and add experience to what he still believes is a strong core of young players, including Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo and Levi Colwill.

Welbeck joining Chelsea would be another sign of a shift in strategy.

Their move for him follows attempts to sign 33-year-old midfielder Granit Xhaka from Sunderland, with the Black Cats refusing to sell the Switzerland captain.

Although the arrival of Rogers, 23, fits the club’s preferred policy of signing younger players, he brings significant Premier League experience.

The Blues are also expected to complete a £52m move for Lacroix, 26 - further Premier League-ready experience.

It is clear that Welbeck’s arrival would leave Chelsea with an abundance of attacking options for a season when they are not involved in European competition so do not necessarily need such resources.

At his age, Welbeck may be content to provide cover for Joao Pedro, but the move would represent bad news for several other forwards.

Nicolas Jackson is open to leaving, while Delap and Emmanuel Emegha had hoped to establish themselves under Alonso.

Nevertheless, the Chelsea manager is getting what he wants: experience and strong personalities to address shortcomings that contributed to the team’s 10th-place finish in the Premier League last season.

Diomande agrees Real Madrid terms as PSG step away

Yan Diomande played in all four of Ivory Coast’s World Cup matches this summer

RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande has agreed personal terms with Real Madrid after Paris St-Germain withdrew their interest.

The 19-year-old Ivory Coast international was previously a target for Liverpool, who had an initial bid of £69m rejected in June, as well as PSG.

Liverpool then moved on to other targets, and PSG have now opted against entering a bidding war with Real.

PSG are said to have had a final £102.5m bid rejected for the teenager on Sunday.

Madrid have since agreed personal terms, said to be modelled on England midfielder Jude Bellingham’s contract as they are incentivised on performances and effectively improve year-on-year.

Real will pay more than £100m for Diomande, who joined Leipzig from Spanish club Leganes last summer on a five-year deal.

Sources close to Real say key negotiators Jose Angel and Juni Calafat have been scouting Diomande for about five years, but were not reactive to Diomande’s World Cup performances.

PSG had been frontrunners for the Ivorian until Real registered their interest, and they confirmed their withdrawal from the race on Sunday.

“The asking transfer fee and salary demands were completely disproportionate and distortive - and PSG will not break its principles of rational financial management and squad balance,” the French club said.

“As a two-time consecutive Champions League winner and the most successful club in recent years, PSG will also not engage in the inflationary and manipulative games of certain player agents - and will instead calmly and confidently continue its transfer planning.”

Leipzig have tried hard to keep the forward in Germany but regard the interest in Diomande as extraordinary, so have found it difficult to reject the interest - and potential record sale price - from Europe’s elite clubs.

Diomande was the Bundesliga’s young player of the season for 2025-26, having scored 12 goals and registered eight assists last term.

He moved from his native Ivory Coast to an academy in the United States in 2025 before joining Spanish side Leganes.

Inter in advanced talks with England defender Stones

England defender John Stones is in advanced talks with Inter Milan about joining the Italian side on a free transfer.

The centre-half is a free agent after leaving Manchester City at the end of June.

Stones has been the subject of major interest from clubs across Europe, including Chelsea and Juventus.

But Serie A champions Inter have held positive discussions with the 32-year-old and are understood to be leading the race to sign the Premier League and Champions League winner on a two-year contract.

Stones made 295 appearances for City after joining from Everton for £47.5m in 2016.

He helped City win six Premier League titles, the Champions League, two FA Cups, five League Cups, three Community Shields, the Club World Cup and the Uefa Super Cup.

The former Barnsley defender has won 93 international caps and was part of the England squad who finished third at the World Cup.

Liverpool's centre-back situation and why Iraola must act

Joe Gomez was forced off injured in Liverpool’s first game under Andoni Iraola

Two centre-backs caught the eye of Liverpool’s scouting department at the U17 World Cup in Qatar last November.

Within weeks, the club spent a combined £3.5m on the pair: Senegal’s Mor Talla Ndiaye and Austria’s Ifeanyi Ndukwe.

Under Matt Newberry, Liverpool’s director of global talent, this was evidence of future planning in full flow.

Yet surely no-one inside the club would have expected the teenage duo to be the centre-back pairing for most of Liverpool’s opening pre-season fixture.

With Joe Gomez forced off by injury in the eighth minute against Sunderland, and neither Jeremy Jacquet or Giovanni Leoni fit to play still, Liverpool have a problem at the heart of their defence.

Looking at the long term is one thing, but they need reinforcements in the here and now.

Even before the injury, new head coach Andoni Iraola said his squad was “very thin” defensively.

Gomez was absent from Liverpool’s training session in Chicago on Sunday and an update on the severity of his injury is expected this week.

He is Liverpool’s longest-serving current player but has now missed 225 games because of injury, according to Transfermarkt, since signing from Charlton in 2015.

Virgil van Dijk is the club’s only fit senior centre-back. The Liverpool captain is 35 and played every minute in the Premier League last season, but he is not the force that he used to be.

The Dutchman, like Gomez, is also into the last year of his contract at Anfield. There is a possibility both players will move on next summer.

One of the reasons why Liverpool allowed Ibrahima Konate to leave on a free transfer and join Real Madrid was because they felt Jacquet, 21, and Leoni, 19, whose transfers weighed in at £60m and £26m respectively, were the best young centre-backs in France and Italy.

Perhaps they will prove inspired signings, with Jacquet in line to make his debut against Leeds on Sunday.

Liverpool will give them every opportunity to fulfil their potential, but right now, just like Ndiaye and Ndukwe, both are far from the finished product.

“We need players. It’s fairly obvious,” former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler told BBC Sport in New York, where the Reds take on Wrexham on Wednesday.

“I’m very sad for Joe Gomez, who has been so unfortunate with injuries. This could have been a real chance to cement his place and for him to show that we don’t need another centre-half.

“We’ve spent money on Jacquet and Leoni and the guidance that Joe and Virgil can give from their experience to the young lads is telling.

“We won’t see the best version of the young lads yet, but you do need that experience in the squad. And yes, the manager’s been on record saying that we need players and I would not be surprised if another centre-half is in that conversation.”

From the outside, Liverpool’s failure to seal a move for Marc Guehi last summer looks even more interesting now.

They have a buyback clause with Jarell Quansah, who left for Bayer Leverkusen for £35m last July, but there are no current plans for Quansah to return.

Sources stress that if Liverpool bring in Bradley Barcola, who Paris St-Germain value in excess of £100m, then there will be limitations to what more they can do in the market.

Deals for Jacquet and Victor Munoz have cost a combined £94.5m.

Without any major outgoings from Iraola’s squad, there is an understanding that this summer will not be like last summer when a club record £450m was spent.

Fowler, who scored 183 times for the Reds, said: “When you look at Liverpool across the last decade, one of the problems that we’ve had is that the first 11 is more than capable but the argument that people have is the squad depth.

“I’m a big believer in getting the squad right because it gives everyone a lift and keeps people on their toes, knowing that if you’re not performing, someone else could do the job.

“Go back to the days of Phil Neal and he’ll tell you stories about how players would never want to get injured because they knew that if someone else came, they wouldn’t get their place back.

“You need that mentality and I think that has a real knock-on effect on standards.”

In six months from last summer through to January 2026, Liverpool agreed deals for five centre-backs who were aged 20 or under at the time - Leoni, Ndiaye, Ndukwe, Noah Adekoya and Jacquet.

It is worth noting that Ndukwe, who was impressive against Sunderland, must go out on loan this year as he does not yet meet the criteria for a UK work permit.

The long-term potential of centre-backs is not a concern at Anfield.

But experience is in short supply - a glaring gap in this Liverpool squad and one that needs to be addressed.

Real Madrid contract talks and Arsenal interest - what is Vinicius Jr's future?

There may be no more intriguing situation in the transfer landscape right now than Vinicius Jr’s future.

The Real Madrid forward is unquestionably one of the most high-profile footballers on the planet.

The Brazil international joined Real as an 18-year-old in 2018, winning 14 trophies and scoring 128 goals in 375 matches for the Spanish giants.

To think they have allowed him to enter the final year of his contract is perplexing - but that is where we are.

In normal circumstances, according to industry sources, Vinicius’ market value would exceed £200m.

On the pitch, that amount of money would get you a world class left-winger who is also adept at playing centrally, as well as a player who, aged 26, is reaching his peak years.

Off the pitch, you would be signing a global icon whose commercial value would be financially lucrative.

Real Madrid have tried to renew their attacker’s contract and opened further talks with him on Monday - but, as of yet, to no avail.

His potential availability has alerted Arsenal, who are among the clubs to have internally explored exploiting the contractual impasse. Teams in Saudi Arabia are also monitoring his situation closely.

Gunners manager Mikel Arteta wants to sign proven talent - and Vinicius fits the bill.

Sources close to Arsenal insist he is just one of a number of options the club are exploring in their search for a left-sided attacker, after missing out on Morgan Rogers to Chelsea.

However, BBC Sport understands Arteta has become so smitten with the notion of signing Vinicius that he is viewed internally as the club’s number one target.

As Arsenal discovered with Rogers, there are no guarantees clubs attract their priority targets.

Indeed, Arsenal are realistic about their chances of landing Vinicius Jr. They know it is a long shot.

Similarly, there is a sense from those close to Vinicius Jr that any move to Arsenal would be difficult.

For most South American footballers, playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona is a lifelong ambition. Leaving the Spanish capital - even for a club as illustrious at Arsenal - would be viewed as, at best, a sidewards step.

With Real being arguably the biggest club on the planet, there is a sense that leaving the Bernabeu would also impact the player’s commercial brand.

Talks over a new Real deal for Vinicius are expected to ramp up in the coming days.

It is claimed the forward is still very receptive to renewing at the Bernabeu but “wants to feel loved”. Recent reports have stated that new manager Jose Mourinho wants to keep all his big names at the club.

But there is serious jeopardy for Real if they keep Vinicius without renegotiating his contract. The scenario of the Brazilian leaving for nothing in 2027 would represent a financial catastrophe, even for a club as cash rich as them.

With that in mind, resolving the situation one way or another is understandably viewed as a priority for Real before the transfer deadline.

As it stands Vinicius can start speaking to rival clubs about a free transfer move away from Real at the turn of the year. Leaving on a free will be far more lucrative in terms of wages to the attacker than leaving this summer, when the buying club has to find a transfer fee.

Additionally, how much would Real demand for Vinicius?

Their move for Eden Hazard seven years ago may provide us with clues. The club signed the Belgian in 2019 in a deal worth up to £130m. He was 28 at the time and in the final year of his contract at Chelsea.

Vinicius is two years younger and has a commercial value that exceeds Hazard’s - and that is not to mention the seven-year cost of inflation.

It is clear that Arsenal would almost certainly need to obliterate the British transfer record of £125m, from Alexander Isak’s move from Newcastle to Liverpool last summer.

Then there are Vinicius’ wages to factor in. Reports suggest he earns in the region of £450,000 a week at Real Madrid, although sources indicate it is considerably more.

At Arsenal, that would immediately make him the club’s top earner by some distance, with Bukayo Saka currently earning up to £400,000-a-week.

But, with Vinicius a year away from his Real contract expiring, it is not simply a case of merely matching - or even slightly improving - his money if he was to leave this summer.

The nature of free transfers means Vinicius could conceivably double his money next year.

With that scenario now within reach, it is safe to assume the forward will almost certainly request a significant pay increase if he moves this summer.

Having to find what is likely to be a minimum £130m plus wages will be a hard push for any club, no matter how rich, in the era of financial regulation.

Arsenal, nevertheless, have analysed the numbers and believe they have the financial means to fund a move for Vinicius. It is understood the signing has widespread backing across the club.

In the past, Arsenal have offered players very generous image rights deals. This would be a key component of any agreement to take Vinicius to the Premier League.

The winger’s advisors at agency Roc Nation will be fully aware of these factors.

The fact Roc Nation also represent Arsenal attacker Gabriel Martinelli - whose chances would be left severely limited by Vinicius’ arrival - also makes for an intriguing subplot.

It is understood that Martinelli, who has up to two years left on his contract, is happy at Arsenal and will only consider leaving for an opportunity that suits him.

Effectively, the leverage is almost entirely with Vinicius.

Arsenal are unquestionably one of the most attractive projects in European football. They will be one of the favourites to lift the Champions League next season, having lost on penalties in last season’s final. They are in a very strong financial position, too.

But a move to north London would require Vinicius to relinquish the sort of leverage that most players, even of his standing, do not have.

Perhaps most importantly of all, it would mean him giving up on being a Real Madrid footballer.

Is he prepared to do that? We should have the answer soon.