New info has come to light about aโmuch-discussed summer transfer. Of course, we know that Alejandro Garnacho said goodbye to Manchester United this summer and signed for Chelsea in a deal up to ยฃ40 million. What we did not know is that reportedly Chelsea tried including their player Romeo Lavia in a swap deal with Manchester United for Alejandro Garnacho. The Red Devils, however, did not co-operate with the swap deal option.
Garnacho’s United disappointment before Chelsea
Alejandro Garnacho paved his own pathway to the Manchester United first team. He had some great performances with the youth team. Carrington has produced so many wonderful talents over the years and Garnacho truly looked like one of those talents. His shearing pace, hunger to get into attacking areas and raw ability made him stand out. Alejandro Garnacho started off promisingly at Old Trafford and won the hearts of Manchester United fans. He was hailed and expected to be the next big thing to wear the United red.
However, things gradually started changing season after season. The performances and especially the hunger that was very evident in Garnacho started fading slowly but surely. He was getting into rifts with managers and had extremely less goal contributions to show. To add to the debacles, the same Manchester United fans who hailed him were losing faith in his talents. All of this led to Garnacho getting benched and eventually leaving the theatre of dreams.
Life at Chelsea for Garnacho
Ever since stepping into Stamford Bridge and London from Manchester, Garnacho has unfortunately failed to reach expectations. He scored and assisted two times this season yet there was no mind-blowing display of the Argentinian. At Chelsea, Garnacho has given hints of what he is really made of. But again, in the same way he did with Manchester United, he fails to materialise those hints into proper performances. But he also has to be given enough time to settle. Most of the players crack under the pressure of immediate performances and ruin their careers in the process. Garnacho will try to avoid that.
The Romeo Lavia problem at Chelsea
Romeoโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ Lavia had been a sensational talent to emerge out of Manchester City‘s top boyhood academy. Besides, he is a man who was specifically singled out for high praise by legendary boss PepโGuardiola. Lavia left Manchester City’sโacademy to sign for Southampton in 2022. He played 34 games for the Saints and was actually their biggestโname during that time. “I am really impressed with what Romeo has done and is doing. We had, and we have, an incredible opinion about him. We thought to keep him, but maybe he would not (get) enough minutes like he has in Southampton,” Pep Guardiola stated when asked about Lavia in April 2023. Chelsea acquired the signing of him in 2023 and it has been an extremely disappointing investment so far.
Lavia has had extreme injury problems so far in the two years he has been at Chelsea. The Belgian midfielder has unfortunately missed close to 500 days away through injury. This was the sole reason Manchester United did not entertain the swap deal talks with Chelsea, citing Lavia’s injury history. Despite heavy expectations placed on Lavia after he was signed, it is disappointing news that Chelsea are attempting to ship him out.
Conclusion
Chelsea wouldn’t have been happy with how the Garnacho deal has gone through by the looks of it. Offloading Lavia and obtaining Garnacho would’ve been a beneficial move for the Blues but Manchester United were having no interest in the swap. Nevertheless, Chelsea will be looking to manage Lavia better and Garnacho will look forward to delivering better performances under the lights of Stamford Bridge.
