The Rudiger saga has become a real-life nightmare.
Chelsea faced Zenit St.Petersbough in their final Champions League group stage match of the season. Despite already seeing themselves through to the round of 16, the Blues gave a performance that several fans would like to forget.
A point of pride for Chelsea fans have been their bragging rights to the number of goals conceded under Thomas Tuchel. Whilst we praised Tuchel for working his magic with Chelsea’s defence, we also admired to influence that Antonio Rudiger had in the backline.
That could be taken away from us in a heartbeat. The same cries belter out from the fan base. Give Rudiger what he wants!
How many times have we praised Antonio Rudiger since his change in personnel at the Bridge? On a number of occasions, the German has protected Chelsea’s backline with honour gifting us with several high-level performances. Chelsea travelled to Russia with him on the bench and our destiny wrote itself.
Thiago Silva is expected to sign a new contract with the Blues, however, will this be enough to fill the void? A 37-year-old Silva is just as good as any defender in the world, however, it is not a sustainable solution. With all of the injuries and the number of matches that Chelsea are about to undertake, can Chelsea really afford a future without the Rudiger contract settled?
As the week's progress and contract negotiations look less likely, Thomas Tuchel will need to edge Rudiger out of the team for the Blues to try and adapt without him. Chelsea match against Zenit was just a taste of what is to come without the German in the side.
It has been reported that Rudiger is already set to have a new club by the end of the summer transfer window.
According to the Independent, Real Madrid are in the lead on negotiations to sign the defender on a free transfer.
They claim that Madrid has reached an 'informal agreement' with the defender. If this is true, it could be a reason for his absence in Chelsea’s last Champions League match.
Represented by his brother, Sahr Senesie, the conversation for Rudiger’s transfer took place with the La Liga giants in November. It’s said that he came to an agreement with Florentino Perez so we will wait to see what happens in the nearby future.
I can’t help but wonder if this may cause a domino effect on the Blues. Following Christensen's questionable performance against Zenit, he is still negotiating terms for a new deal with Chelsea. Whilst the Blues do not seem shaken by the possibility of his exit, Barcelona and AC Milan have joined the quest to sigh the Danish defender on a free next summer.
Several other Chelsea players are out of contract within the next two years, including Marcos Alonso, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante. With no word on any of these players receiving new contracts as of yet, the situation with Rudiger could be set to cause a domino effect.
Antonio Rudiger was trending amongst the Twitter Spaces as fans called out for Marina and the board to give him what he wants. One fan said,
“No amount of money that he is asking for is worth watching this defensive disaster class”.
Others echoed this point and quite frankly, so do I.
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