Analysis: Taison to Chelsea?

Taison Freda is 24 years old and a Brazilian attacking midfielder/striker who plays for Metalist Kharkiv in Ukraine. Rumour started back in November that Taison was Chelsea bound, and rumours have increased in the last 2 days that he will be joining in January with work permit issues resolved. A fee of £11 million was said to have been agreed and he was in London trying to complete the deal. A close friend of Oscar from their days at Internacional, all seemed set in place.

However, in the last few hours, the deal was said to be off. Tais0n is allegedly setting off back to Brazil after the transfer deal fell through. Stories of an 11th hour transfer bid from Manchester City is said to have muddled things slightly with Metalist now wanting more money from Chelsea if the deal is due to go through. Whave been given until 10th of January to complete a deal or else Taison will not be a Chelsea player and may end up in the blue side of Manchester or will remain at Metalist. Word of caution however, this news is from to the Daily Mail and let’s just say they aren’t the most reliable sources you’ll ever find.

Taison is a talented player, no doubt. He possesses pace and trickery to beat opponents, an eye for the spectacular (search Taison van Basten volley into YouTube if you haven’t seen it, it is quite special) as well as a nicely cut afro hairstyle. A big advantage is that Taison brings versatility to our squad as he can play anywhere in the attack. With Benfica, Shakhtar and Manchester City said to be monitoring the situation, you can see that this kid has got talent.

His Europa League stats read like this:

Goals: 1

Assists: 2

Pass Success Rate: 82.4%

In 5 games, they aren’t terrible stats. His goal return isn’t brilliant with only 1 goal to his name with 664 minutes of Ukranian League football this season but overall it is about 1 in 4 games. But it is not his goal return or talent that is the question over this deal, the question is do we need him?

My view would be that we probably don’t need him. We have plenty of talent already at our disposal in his attacking midfield positions and I think it would be a bad move for the club, and for the player to move to Stamford Bridge. I doubt he’d see the game time he would like and need to progress as a player and his arrival would also harm the futures of Kevin de Bruyne and Lucas Piazon. I have spoken to some fans about this transfer and most of you are saying the same thing, he isn’t really needed, invest in the rest of the squad. Attacking midfield isn’t an area that we struggle in and I would much rather we invested in our double pivot positions or at left back. I must also note that Taison would be cup tied for the Europa League so he’s not the ideal candidate if we want to strengthen depth for winning the Europa League.

In general, I believe Taison Freda to be an excellent little player and he most definitely possesses the quality to play Premier League football for us. I would say though that he just isn’t needed at Chelsea at this time. At £11 million, he could be an excellent piece of business but I’d much rather we used this money elsewhere as other areas are in greater need. The January transfer window is about building on the weakest points in the squad for the rest of the season and I don’t believe Taison is the solution to our problems.

I don’t know if the deal is off or not but be sure to watch this space, do not discount anything just yet.

Be sure to comment on the article or tweet me your views on what you think of Taison and what Chelsea need this January. Keep the Blue Flag Flying High!