Timo Werner could hardly have wished for a more pleasant greeting. Without even touching the ball for Chelsea FC, the club’s fans were already rolling out the blue carpet for him. On social media, where Werner documented his first steps in London with a few winged English words, the followers showered him with compliments. However, Werner made it easy for them to get closer: he completed his introductory session on Monday in the club area in the club colors. “First training session, for the first time in blue,” he commented on his Blaumann tracksuit – which of course showed him not in action as a mechanic, but as a soccer player.
Werner had already inspected Stamford Bridge the day before, the club’s venerable venue in the Fulham district. There he met the former world-class goalkeeper Petr Cech, who won the Champions League as a player with Chelsea in 2012 and returned the previous year as technical director. The television cameras didn’t even have to look for Werner to find him. In the empty stadium, he was visible to everyone in the middle of the lower grandstand: row R, seat 104. Behind a face mask with a club emblem, he watched the 2-0 of his new team against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The seventh league home win in a row guaranteed Frank Lampard’s fourth in the table qualification for the Champions League – and saved Werner from having to compete in the unattractive Europa League with his team. With the signature of the Blues Werner wants to present himself on the big stage.
The distance to Liverpool and ManCity is to be shortened with top-class transfers
His costly EUR 53 million commitment from RB Leipzig is part of London’s investment plan this summer to top-class city rivals Tottenham and Arsenal with high-profile transfers and to catch up with champions FC Liverpool and second, Manchester City. After the purchase of goalscorer Werner and the Moroccan playmaker Hakim Ziyech from Ajax Amsterdam, the cash flow from the premier class, which is guaranteed for the new season, provides the basis for revamping the already sophisticated squad with other players in the “de luxe” category.
Since the entry of the Russian oligarch Roman Abramowitsch in 2003, the fans in snobbish Chelsea have been spoiled for new, expensive professionals to be presented every year. According to media reports on the island, Chelsea is said to have already agreed on a five-year contract with Kai Havertz, 21, who is praised as a child prodigy – however, an agreement with Bayer Leverkusen on the amount of the transfer fee is still missing. An amount between 75 and 100 million euros is rumored. If a change comes about, it would continue the German player tradition at Chelsea.
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