West Ham links to £50m Chelsea attacker make no sense – unless Casadei plan is true

Armando Broja is in a funny situation. Many Chelsea fans are convinced that he’s not good enough to be a regular option for us, meanwhile Premier League teams are constantly being linked with him and a potential January move.

Jacob Steinberg’s piece in the Guardian today adds West Ham to a list that already apparently includes Fulham and other teams looking for a boost up top.

But it’s hard to see Chelsea sanctioning a move simply because they’ve only got Nicolas Jackson on the books as a true striker apart from Broja, and he’s away with Senegal at AFCON.

Could it be that, as some have suggested, that Cesare Casadei has been recalled with a view to being our third choice striker after Jackson and Christopher Nkunku? It seems outlandish to us, but then again we don’t have any better reason to explain why the Italian was brought back from Leicester, where he was really starting to get settled in.

That would free up Broja for a move – although there’s no doubt that it would weaken Mauricio Pochettino’s options, for the sake of the money we get for selling Broja. If it’s the £50m rumoured last week that would be worth it, but we can’t see that happening.