June 2020

Chelsea's expected £50m capture of RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner demonstrates Frank Lampard's side really mean business next season, according to the Sunday Supplement panel.

Chelsea have agreed a deal in principle to sign the Germany international, who has a €55m (£49.4m) release clause which expires on June 15, and have offered a £200,000-a-week contract to convince the 24-year-old to move to Stamford Bridge this summer.

Werner - who has scored an impressive 25 Bundesliga goals so far this campaign - had also interested Liverpool and Manchester United, but the Blues have now stolen a march on their Premier League rivals in a move that signals the club's intentions going forward.

"Chelsea have agreed with Werner this week to move to Stamford Bridge at the end of the season, there is an agreement between club and player," Matt Law - the Daily Telegraph's Football News Correspondent - told the Sunday Supplement.

"He has a release clause in the region of £53m, which will get activated, and everybody expects that to go through.

"A lot of people have been taken by surprise that Chelsea have moved so quickly on such a big deal right in the middle of the coronavirus crisis before the season has restarted, to commit to spend £53m and reported wages of around £200,000 per week for a player like Werner.

"Clearly it shows their intent, it is a real statement from them that they are ready to go again, that they are willing to spend and it puts pressure on others as we are hearing that Tottenham and Arsenal are having to look at loans and free transfers this next market.

"Liverpool were certainly interested in Werner, but decided that during this coronavirus crisis they did not want to commit to that sort of money. So Chelsea have put their marker down for everyone else with that deal."

Unlike the majority of Europe's elite clubs this summer, however, Chelsea are actually in healthy position when it comes to their dealings in transfer market, as Law explains.

"Chelsea are in an incredibly strong position in all of this," said Law. "The timing has worked out so strangely for them because they could not spend any money last summer, while also getting in £130m for Eden Hazard and they sold Alvaro Morata and I think the money for him comes through this summer for around £48m.

"They could not sign anyone last summer because they had a ban and then they were not able to sign in January because they could not get the targets they wanted to.

"Then all of a sudden they find themselves in a summer where they have money in the bank from deals like Morata and Hazard that has come in, they have not spent any money in the last two windows.

"They are in a position to try and take some advantage through this in that they have been saving money. And they have all these young players coming through who themselves have become more and more valuable over recent months through Lampard playing them and through them succeeding so well.

"And then all of a sudden they can supplement it with going back into the market, so they look very well placed to really have a good go at things and to maybe take advantage of some other clubs not being able to do what they can do."