Four years ago, a little known about 21 year old teenager by the name of Nemanja Matic signed on to Chelsea F.C. Standing 1.94 cm and weighing 68 kgs, the left footed dynamite took his time to establish himself at Chelsea, due to an injury he picked up at the European U-21 championships. After he was able to put his injury problems at bay, we began to see just why Chelsea dished around 1.5 million pounds for him, partnering Nathaniel Chalobah on several accounts for the Youth/Reserve team, he portrayed excellent awareness and control on and tenacity too look for the it off possession. In no time, Ancelloti (our coach at the time) handed him a bench role for Chelsea’s League Cup match against Queens Park Rangers on 23 September 2009, but did not take any part in the 1–0 victory. He later made his Premier League debut for Chelsea on 21 November, coming on as a substitute for Florent Malouda in the 69th minute in a 4–0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers. His second appearance came again as a substitute, this time against Wigan Athletic on the final day of the 2009–10 season, where Chelsea won 8–0 to retain the Premier League title.
Step forward summer transfer window 2010, Chelsea contacted Benfica for the availability of a Certain David Luiz. Benfica allegedly wanted 30 million pounds for Luiz, Chelsea managed to negotiate a “Bargain” of 25 million pounds plus Nemanja Matic so as to facilitate the transfer of David Luiz. Most of Chelsea fans had seen too little of Matic and with Luiz coming to the premier league and making instant impact and eventually becoming an ever growing symbol of Chelsea, we all concluded that the transfer was worth every penny and we made a definite coup.
Back in Portugal, with just a handful of games under his belt, Benfica made a proper holding midfielder out of Nemanja Matic. After a full season, Matic became a key Benfica player, and after scoring a ferocious volley into the top corner of the net against Benfica’s fierce rivals FC Porto, to level the game 1-1, he was awarded with a contract extension lasting until 2018, with the buyout clause set at €45 million on the next day.
Here comes the simple mathematics, we bought Matic for 1.5 million, sold him at a value of 3.5 million pounds; he is worth 40 million pounds in just two years under Benfica. The bigger irony is the lack of a proper holding midfielder at Chelsea that Benitez has deployed Luiz much of this season in that deep midfielder position, which Matic is currently Bossing over in Portugal. If rumors are to be believed, Mourinho has identified Matic as a Key transfer target for Chelsea come this summer, which means, should we activate his release clause, we would have essentially bought David Luiz for more than 65 million pounds, still a bargain?
Fast forward the summer of 2012, Chelsea brings in a young Belgian, Kevin De Bruyne for 7.2 million pounds. Again, without seeing much of Kevin in a Chelsea jersey, he was immediately shipped off to Weder Bremen on loan. Also, similar like Matic, Kevin became Bremen’s Key player, playing 39 games, racking up 10 goals and 12 assists (which are nearly similar to what Oscar has managed for Chelsea this season).
With stats like these, one would think the parent club would like to have Kevin back. But it seems Chelsea’s Management have yet to learn from the Matic situation, as he has been identified as a possible make weight for the purchase of Andre Schurle (+ 20 million pounds) or Robert Lewandoski ( + 25 million pounds) or Gundogan (+ 20 million pounds), or the total sale of Kevin for a mere 13 million pounds.
Would this be a bargain to? or a possible case of Déjà vu? Let me know what you guys think. KTBFFH!
Fredrick Bosche