Chelsea sent reality check over £52m signing after selling England star – ‘Out of place’

Chelsea let a number of stars leave Stamford Bridge in the summer and they’ve now been told that one of their new signings, Jamie Gittens, is a downgrade on Noni Madueke

Chelsea have been told that the signing of Jamie Gittens was a downgrade on Noni Madueke, who was controversially allowed to leave the club. The Blues chose to reshuffle their wide options in the summer across what was a hectic transfer window.

Brazilian wonderkick Estevao Willian finally arrived at Stamford Bridge, while Gittens was signed in a £52million deal with Borussia Dortmund. Those arrivals coincided with the sale of England winger Madueke, who joined Arsenal in a £48.5m deal.

But former Arsenal star Alan Smith doesn’t feel Gittens has been an improvement on Madueke when he was asked if Chelsea would be regretting their decision to sell the latter. Speaking to Metro via BestBetting Sites, he said: “Who knows how Chelsea feel when it comes to these comings and goings.

“Jamie Gittens hasn’t been an upgrade though, he’s just been disappearing up blind alleys, and we’ve not seen the best form from him yet.

“That was a strange move. It felt unusual at the time, and it looks even more out of place now. But that’s Chelsea at the moment, isn’t it?”

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While Gittens has had a slow start to life with Chelsea – the former Dortmund man having yet to score – the same can’t be said for Madueke. The new Arsenal star has impressed during his short time in North London, with Gary Neville having been among those to shower him with praise.

He said: “I want to talk about Noni Madueke. I’ll be honest with you, I’d seen him play quite a lot at Chelsea and when Arsenal signed him I thought, I can see why Chelsea sort of let him go.

“I tell you – what a different player at Arsenal, and in the England games in the last few weeks. He’s obviously a lot better on the right and that was clear when [Bukayo] Saka went off injured the other week so I wonder if Saka could play on the left a bit more this season.

Who got the better end of Noni Madueke’s move? Share your thoughts in the comments below

“Arsenal have a few problems on the left with [Gabriel] Martinelli struggling a bit so maybe Saka could go back there.

“Madueke looks one hell of a player on the right, some of the runs he made were really top level. I was looking at it as a full-back and thinking, ‘oh, I didn’t know he had that’.

“He’s the young kid so maybe Saka, the experienced one, moves over. Saka is the better player, let’s be clear, but they could swap during games.

“Madueke got some stick when he joined Arsenal, some of the fans were really questioning it, but he looks good.”

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