Chelsea boosts attacking options with pending Schürrle capture
Posted by Raphael Honigstein in Columns with 0 comments.
German international André Schürrle (center) is equally comfortable in a wide role or playing as a second striker.
André Schürrle didn’t pause to converse with reporters after Bayer Leverkusen’s 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg on Saturday. But that didn’t prevent the 22-year-old winger being the main talking point. He had scored the home team’s goal, his 12th of the season, to start with. The much bigger story, however, is his mooted move to Chelsea at the end of the season. Bayer sporting director Rudi Völler didn’t exactly go out of the way to deny the rumors. “We are thinking about it, that’s part of the business,” he confirmed to reporters. Last August, his club had come close to agreeing on an offer from Blues for Schürrle as well, Völler revealed, but a lack of suitable replacements had put a stop to the transfer. “This year,” he said, “we will see if there are alternatives.”
In soccer terms, this is code for “we’ll do it.” ONE World Sports understands that both clubs have agreed in principle to do the deal for a fee just north of €20 million ($26M). Leverkusen does not want to announce the deal before it can secure the capture of one or two targets. Gladbach’s Patrick Herrmann is reportedly on the hit list, and so too is Chelsea’s Kevin De Bruyne, who currently plays for Werder Bremen on loan. Initially, Bayer had proposed a swap deal (De Bruyne plus cash) but the Londoners are only prepared to send the Belgian forward out on loan. Leverkusen will not have an option to buy either. Last week, De Bruyne was still to formally agree to this move — that’s another reason why the Schürrle deal has not been completed.
For Leverkusen, this is almost a no-brainer. It bought Schürrle in 2011 for just over €8M ($10.4M). Thirty percent of any fee beyond €10M ($13M) goes to his former club Mainz 05 but Bayer will still more than double its money in the space of two years. There’s also a sense that the player has not quite lived up to his potential since his move to the Bay-Arena. Following his break-through season with Thomas Tuchel’s Mainz in 2010/11, when he finished the season with 15 goals – the highest tally for a 20-year-old in the Bundesliga since Jürgen Klinsmann burst on the scene for VfB Stuttgart in the mid-80s — Schürrle looked mostly lost and bereft of confidence in his first season in the Bayer shirt. He scored nine goals and notched up six assists in 40 games in all competitions. The whole of the team struggled to perform under manager Robin Dutt, however, and the escalating row between Michael Ballack, Dutt and the Leverkusen board wasn’t conducive to top performances. This season, Schürrle has been much better. Bayer is on course for a Champions League qualification under co-managers Sami Hyypiä and Sascha Lewandowski. The team is set up to play a counter-attacking style that suits Schürrles’ key attribute of pace, and he’s scored 15 goals with five assists in 34 games so far — a strong return for a wide player.
For Schürrle , it makes a lot of sense on many levels, too. He will earn a multiple of his current wages at Stamford Bridge. He’s a genuine Anglophile and excited by the idea of playing in the Premier League, like best friend and former Mainz team-mate Lewis Holtby. The Spurs midfielder has already talked about a sharing a flat with Schürrle in London but it’ll be difficult for both of them to find a place that makes commuting to the respective training centers possible. Spurs’ Bull Cross complex and Cobham, the Chelsea HQ, are at opposite ends of town, separated by 40 miles.
Schürrle is confident enough that he will get enough game time with Chelsea to stay in contention for a starting place in the German national team. He was one of the few “winners” of Euro 2012 after a fine performance against Greece. Recent progress has been stinted by the emergence of Mario Götze and Marco Reus, however. The two Dortmund gems will be hard to displace, in any case, so Schürrle has little to lose and a lot to gain from crossing the Channel.
Where will he play? It will be possible to field him as deep-lying, roving striker behind a more orthodox No. 9. But he’ll probably be of more immediate use as a second genuine wide player, to relieve the over-reliance of Eden Hazard. His signing also holds out the intriguing option to return Chelsea to their “traditional,” Mourinho-devised system of a 4-3-3, with Schürrle and Hazard as classic wingers and Juan Mata operating in more central role behind them. He’s certainly a big upgrade from compatriot Marko Marin, whom Chelsea wanted to send on loan to Russia not long ago, and Victor Moses, who isn’t nearly as fast or dangerous in front of goal. “He’s got enough potential to succeed at the highest European level,” said Schürrle’s former coach Tuchel. Lastly, Schürrle’s formative years at high-pressing, non-stop-running Mainz make him exactly the kind of hard-working, defensively-minded player that every coach — and especially Mourinho— covets. And the fact that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has been directly involved in his signing shouldn’t hurt his prospects either.
@ the video
