So, another article and another day has come by and Chelsea Football Club are yet again interested in another young player. At risk of sounding like a broken record, I will keep this article relatively short and simple. 

This time, we’re looking at Mathys Tel. Tel is a French forward, born in 2005, who burst onto the scene and started to make a name for himself at Stade Rennais before Bayern snapped him up in 2022 for what at the time was a pretty large sum of around 20 to 30 million Euros. 

I’m not going to sit here and pretend I watch every Bayern Munich game so the things I’ll talk about are mainly things I’ve noticed when I’ve actually watched him play. 

I’ll cover my thoughts and the data on the potential deal and again why I think it’s a dodgy one. 

My own thoughts on the idea and on Tel

Much like all the other deals, I have sympathy for the idea. Mathys Tel is a top French talent, for sure.

No negotiating about that – he is. I have minimal doubt that within 5 years of good development and game time, he will probably be lauded as one of the best players in the world (top 10). 

This is very much a ‘good opportunity’ again for Chelsea to strike a good deal in the window.

Get rid of Nkunku who’s massively out of favour right now and looks completely careless and get in a top young talent.

But again, it doesn’t solve anything right now. 

Tel isn’t a striker. He’s more of a left winger that comes inside and plays off the left of a striker.

That’s nice, but Nkunku also does that? What Nkunku might lack in workrate, Tel most likely will compensate for but again – there’s no substantial evidence to suggest that may actually be the case. 

Aside from all of that, I do like him as a footballer. He wins headers, he can drive well (inside and outside), he shoots, he shoots well and he crashes the back post.

He’s also slightly a more preferable option to Garnacho given his profile. 

I reckon he could play touchline, the data backs this up, and he can also play off the striker and in the half space. He’s a good ‘swiss army knife’ tactically so to say. 

Overall, Tel is definitely a player I would be interested in but again, I am not entirely sure he’s a need given the current situation at Chelsea.

What does the data Tel us?

Again, his data is unremarkable compared to Chelsea’s current options. 

I’ll compare him to Chelsea’s current wingers (no Mudryk) and also to Chelsea’s other target for the position in Alejandro Garnacho. 

As Tel hasn’t played much, I’ll be taking an average of his entire Bayern Munich league data and using that. 

I’ll be using similar comparisons in the metrics for Mathys Tel as I did with Garnacho, given he’d likely be signed to either compete with Jackson and also to fill in at left wing.

So the first thing I’ll be looking at is his creativity and ‘directness’.

To my surprise his dribbling numbers are actually pretty decent, especially considering almost all the Bayern Munich fanbase are insistent that he cannot dribble.

From watching him myself, I’d say that he’s alright currently at dribbling but his insistency and sheer drive to keep going at it makes his dribbling an asset.

This is illustrated by the above data – he tops dribbles attempted per 90. 

Much like Garnacho and all the other options at Chelsea currently, Mathys Tel doesn’t excel creatively yet but for someone with such little game time his numbers stand really well.

You could argue weaker league, yes. You could also argue that a smaller sample size inflated the numbers, also yes.

But 3.40 is a good figure and from watching him you can see why.

Even if creatively he isn’t insane or whatever you’d argue, his sheer determination and persistence on the football pitch creates things. 

It’s again this insistence in trying to make things happen that makes Tel a ‘likeable’ player.

It’s even more likeable in the sense that Tel has great shooting statistics as well as good statistics in his ability to be a direct winger.

It’s that sense of being at a good level data-wise in both ‘output’ and ‘production’ metrics that makes him a very very appealing signing.

Finally you have a metric that somewhat indicates his willingness to work off the ball.

There isn’t massively too much to say here, but there’s a decent indication that he can work hard based off this. 

So, does the data Tel us to buy him?

I’d say yeah it probably does. I’m going to assume here that none of the other issues in the Chelsea squad exist and we have to buy someone at left wing, which the club seems insistent on anyway.

In this case, yes. I would absolutely go for him.

I don’t think he’d be an instant hit, and I don’t even think he’d come to Chelsea anyway if game time is what he’s looking for, but say he did somehow end up at Stamford Bridge come February 1st then I would definitely be happy. 

Mathys Tel is a rare talent and not one many clubs would pass up on.

The data at his age is pretty impressive, even if it’s unremarkable against Chelsea’s current options.

The data supports the sense that Tel is a ‘swiss army knife’ tactically and can perform to a good standard doing a variety of different things and it’s something that’s very important in modern football. 

It’s a shorter article than usual as I am ignoring the current Chelsea squad-building crisis so to cut it short:

• Yes get him if we really have to get a left winger, he’s definitely a good target.
• No don’t get him if we don’t have to and place those funds in a pot that will go towards a position we actually need.
• But either way, Tel is definitely a good player and will become an incredible one in the future. 

At this point, no one really is sure what Chelsea’s squad building plan.

It is for that reason I cannot give a definitive verdict on whether or not we should move for him.

Let us see what the directors do in the closing days of the window, if they do anything at all.