Chelsea's use of swap deals in the transfer market is more than just a ploy to get some money off the transfer fee they are being told to pay.
Todd Boehly has been using a very American style negotiation tactic to prize players away from their clubs, using a cash plus player structure many times this summer already. Timo Werner was used to try and persuade Juventus to sell Matthijs de Ligt whilst Christian Pulisic was also offered. Levi Colwill was effectively leveraged during the Marc Cucurella deal, though they were officially separate transactions, and multiple players including Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ethan Ampadu, Billy Gilmour and even Callum Hudson-Odoi have been offered to Leicester to reduce the price of Wesley Fofana.
As the window goes on and Chelsea are left with more incomings being worked on and squad players left without a clear role then it opens up the opportunities for experimentation in the market no matter how serious matters become.
READ MORE: Wesley Fofana asks to be left out of Leicester squad as Chelsea transfer talk intensifies
As far as serious goes, Tuchel will have placed the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang right at the top of his priority list. The Gabonese forward is not only someone that Tuchel gets on well with, he is an experienced, proven goal-scorer at Premier League level and offers a bigger physical presence to Chelsea's attack.
The Blues have become confident that a deal for the Barcelona striker would be completed, football.london reported earlier this week, and although the price tag of £25.5m hasn't changed, Boehly is trying to use all of his methods of persuation to lower the cash sum.
As reported by the Athletic, Chelsea's offer is less than Barcelona's valuation, coming in at £15m, but includes Marcos Alonso going the other way. The Spaniard has been looked at intensely by the Catalan club this summer but no deal has been reached and now, with Cesar Azpilicueta staying in London, the Alonso move had gone quiet.
All three parties would like Alonso to end up in Spain, but given Barcelona's valuation was only £6m for him earlier this window, that would equate as less than the £25.5m they want to receive for Aubameyang.
What this does show, other than an insistence to use players in transfers this summer, is that getting rid of those underperforming players is just as important in the final weeks as buying new stars.
Whilst Chelsea are not being fooled into to overpaying massively for Aubameyang, with the club still willing to pull out of proceedings should there not be some compromise, key steps have been made to secure Aubameyang and moving away now would seem a waste of time. Like Leicester holding out for Wesley Fofana, it could yet be a case of Chelsea having to cough up the money.
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