Following a lot of thrills and spills in the ongoing transfer window, Chelsea are now keen to trim their heavy 43-man first-team squad to set the tone for the Premier League 2024-25 season.
One of their 22-year-olds is standing on the brink of a Premier League move on a conditional loan spell for this season. The club’s management is focused on offloading players to maintain a balanced roster, ensuring they enter the season with a lean and competitive team.
Chelsea’s young dynamo to join Ipswich Town on a loan move
As per Fabrizio Romano, the Albanian centre-forward Armando Broja, who joined Chelsea from Fulham in 2022, is on his way to Ipswich Town after a verbal agreement is finalized for an initial loan deal.
The agreement includes a mandatory purchase clause that will activate if the Tractor Boys do not face relegation. Chelsea has accepted a total package worth over £30 million, which also covers Broja’s salary until June.
This move from Stamford Bridge comes as no surprise. With Chelsea having secured the permanent signing of Portuguese striker João Félix from Atlético Madrid and setting their sights on Nigerian sensation Victor Osimhen, the club is under pressure to generate the necessary funds to pursue their desired targets.
A product of Chelsea’s youth academy, Broja has made 38 appearances for the first team so far. Throughout his career, he has gained valuable experience through loan spells, including stints at Southampton and a half-season at Fulham last year. On the international stage, the 22-year-old has earned 23 caps for Albania, scoring five goals for his national side.
Considering the number of players the Blues have in the squad, it makes sense to let players like Broja leave. It might not be a sale but it’s still wages off the books. More importantly, the club is becoming a running joke for the number of players they are signing and we cannot hoard young players and curtail their development by not giving them a chance to play. Thus, loans like this show that maybe the club does have a plan.
Broja was tipped to succeed at Chelsea prior to his ACL injury. However, the striker has failed to recover his best level after recovering and needs regular game time to get back to where he was. If the 22-year-old can make this move to Ipswich work, it’ll be exceptional for his career going forward. Let’s see how Broja’s career pans out from here on.
