“Done deal” – Chelsea secure €22m transfer with no variables according to local source backed by Romano | OneFootball

Fabrizio Romano is today reporting that Chelsea are very close to signing Dario Essugo from Sporting CP.

In a Tweet just now he said that the midfielder “already said yes” to Chelsea’s offer, and the club are at an “advanced stage” of negotiating the final fee.

He follows a story in Portugal’s big football paper A Bola from yesterday, which was the first publication to claim that the midfielder would soon be following his club mate Geovany Quenda to Stamford Bridge.

While the winger is moving for a really big price around £40m, Essugo comes much cheaper. Both Romano and A Bola have his number set at somewhere around €22m, with no variables. The story from Portugal went as far as to say it was a “done deal.”

Portugal Under-21 international Essugo is another superb product of the Sporting academy, making his debut as a 16 year old. He’s had a handful of senior appearances for the Lions, but has played more on loan with Chaves last season and this season with Las Palmas in Spain.

A 5’10 terrier of a midfielder, he’s full of energy but also has the top tier technical skills of a player developed in Portugal.

Essugo another body in Blues midfield

Fabrizio Romano’s Tweet about impending Essugo move to Chelsea.

This year has seen us repeatedly call for more bodies in Chelsea’s midfield, as Romeo Lavia’s injuries have left us pretty depleted in terms of midfielders who can run and defend a little in transition.

But next year Lavia will hopefully be back, Andrey Santos will return from his loan, Essugo joins the party and even Kendry Paez could be an option in the Enzo Fernandez role.

That surely means Mathis Amougou, who joined in January, will go on loan, perhaps to replace Santos at our sister club Strasbourg.