Done Deal: Chelsea secure first January signing

Chelsea are looking increasingly likely to land the highly rated Croatian forward Andrej Kramaric in the January transfer window. Croatian media Vecernji has published an article whose headline (google) translates to “End of Story! Chelsea buys Kramarica and sent him on loan to Leicester!” – that roughly means “deal done”. 

The Blues have been linked with the player for sometime now, and couple of days back transfer guru Gianluca di Marzio of Sky Italia claimed that the deal was close, with Chelsea to hold meetings with HNK Rijeka officials and would lodge a formal bid. 

From our article on 29th December:

Should the deal go through which is highly likely, Kramaric will travel to England on January 5th for the medical, per Di Marzio. Chelsea will set an offer around €7-8m , on a four year contract with wages around €1.2m. 

Kramaric upon signing with Chelsea could finish the season on loan at Vitesse or Leicester.Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said earlier that there won’t be any transfer movement in January, but it seems like the Blues are on the verge of sealing their first signing in few days time.

Now, Croatian media are suggesting “According to the latest information that come from Kantrida, an agreement was reached between the river and Chelsea and Kramarić should soon move to London”. 

Kramaric has been in great form this season, scoring 27 goals in all competitions, but he will not be drafted straight into the first squad, with the report suggesting Mourinho could send him on loan to Leicester, who offered him €10m. 

Chelsea have this peculiar habit of picking up top cherries from small garden elsewhere and instead of planting it on their own garden, they love to sell it elsewhere. Amazingly, in 99.99% of those cases, highly talented players who were sent on loan, never gets the chance to represent the first team.

All indications suggest that Kramaric is likely to witness the same fate that so many talented Chelsea youngsters have gone through over the past few years. Be prepared for series of loan-spells Kramaric boy!