Chelsea failed with late move to sign 26-year-old African star

Chelsea plotted late move for Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi on deadline day

As per Athletic (Subscription Required), Chelsea made a move for Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi on the deadline day of the summer transfer window. The Blues inquired about the striker in the final 48 hours of the window, but Forest had no intention to sell their starting centre-forward.

The Nigerian forward made a decent start to his first Premier League season last term, scoring 11 goals in 27 league matches across all competitions.

Meanwhile, this season, the 26-year-old already has three goals to his name, and the centre-forward made a match-winning assist in Nottingham Forest’s 1-0 win over Chelsea last week, nutmegging the ball through Thiago Silva’s legs to find eventual goal-scorer Anthony Elanga.

Goal-scoring has been a persistent problem that Chelsea seek to address. The club can only hope that the new signings start producing goals because they are beginning to acclimatise.

While being ranked first in terms of possession, shots, and touches, Chelsea are placed 11th in terms of goals scored in the Premier League. Chelsea’s struggle to score goals continues, which has seen the Blues register only one win in their past four encounters.

New signing Nicolas Jackson has been on target only once while his backup, Armando Broja, recovers from a knee injury. The Blues are 12^th in the table and will return to action on September 17 when they face Bournemouth.

If we had signed Awoniyi, would it have changed anything? It certainly seems difficult to answer that. But considering he is big, muscular, good in the air, and has a goal-scoring eye, he could have given manager Mauricio Pochettino something different to work with.

There are cases where a player doesn’t perform the same way for a big club as he did before earning a move to them. We can’t club Awoniyi in that bracket unless we see him being handed the responsibility of leading a European giants’ frontline.

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He’s 26 and in the prime of his career. But if we considered such a late move for him, it could have been a sign of panic. It is better if we shortlist our targets early and give Poch the players he needs. Let’s see how Awoniyi fares for a few more months and then we can take a shot at him perhaps next year.