Chelsea are thought to be on the verge of completing the signing of Borussia Dortmund winger Jamie Gittens.
The Blues had two bids for the 20-year-old rejected in the initial Club World Cup summer transfer window, but talks have continued. Dortmund have insisted on their sizeable €65 million asking price, with Chelsea now closing in on an agreement.
Gittens has agreed a seven-year contract with the Stamford Bridge outfit and, as things stand, he will likely be Chelsea’s starting left-winger next season, unless they also press ahead with their interest in Man Utd outcast Alejandro Garnacho.
The England youth international certainly has massive potential, which is represented in his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €68.3m. This would suggest that Chelsea are getting a good deal for the youngster.
However, his ETV is also informed by other factors such as his contract situation. He is tied to Dortmund until 2028, which is a significant boost to his value. Right now, Chelsea are purely paying for potential.
Gittens is a worse Sancho – for now
Gittens has often had to contend with the notion that he is Dortmund’s next Jadon Sancho, but living up to this expectation has proved to be a tall task. In fact, it is fair to say that Gittens is not at the level his predecessor was when he moved to Man Utd in 2021.
Although the Red Devils winger has subsequently failed to live up to his potential, he was a far more polished winger when he left than Gittens currently is. Sancho’s decision-making and attacking output were levels above anything that the incoming Chelsea recruit has managed.
This is backed up even by the most basic of numbers: goals and assists. Gittens is coming off his best-ever season at Dortmund, producing 12 goals and five assists in 49 games. By comparison, Sancho managed 16 goals and a whopping 20 assists in just 38 games in his final season.
There is an argument to be made that Sancho was surrounded by better teammates – after all, Erling Haaland was finishing off the chances he created – but this doesn’t explain the large discrepancy in numbers.
Sancho was a guaranteed starter, whereas Gittens lost his place in the second half of the season when new head coach Niko Kovac came in. His lack of defensive work and particularly his infuriating inconsistency saw Gittens dropped, and Dortmund were probably better off for it.
When Gittens has the ball, he often gets his head down and just hopes for the best. The foundation for him to become a good winger is present, although his development has been stunted by injury struggles. He is quick, he can dribble, and he knows where the goal is.
The problem is that he is still so raw, so inconsistent in his decision-making, that he would struggle to make the grade at pretty much any elite club. Chelsea are, of course, different because Gittens is exactly the type of player they have been targeting under Todd Boehly and Clearlake.
However, Chelsea fans who expect him to be a significant upgrade on Mykhailo Mudryk and Jadon Sancho could be in for a rude awakening. He can become a very good player, there is no doubt about it, but there is still a long, long way to go.
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