According to multiple reports from major outlets, Chelsea have agreed on a deal to sell 18-year-old academy product Lewis Hall to Newcastle United for a fee in the region of £30mil with add-ons on top.
This comes as a surprise as Hall had been expected to join Crystal Palace on loan before relations with Palace became strained over Chelsea’s alleged underhanded pursuit of Eagles star Michael Olise.
Hall’s Promising Start at Chelsea
Hall broke into Chelsea’s first team last season, making 11 appearances, and looked like a player who could become a long-term fixture in the group. Playing left-back and in his more natural midfield role, Hall excelled on the ball and showed a great work rate off the ball as he quickly adapted to the first team
Chelsea’s Youth Exodus
The general feeling was that Hall would become a long-term fixture in the first-team squad, eventually establishing himself as a starter in the medium term. Instead, it appears he will now join Marc Guehi, Tammy Abraham, and Fikayo Tomori in moving on and having another club reap the rewards of his talents.
The £30mil fee is unquestionably high for a player with so little experience but when Romeo Lavia is moving to Chelsea for £60mil with less than 40 senior games under his belt then there is no sense to be found in this current transfer market.
Newcastle’s Strategic Move
For Newcastle, this was simply a deal that they could not afford to pass up. Hall’s talent raises the long-term ceiling of the team but it will be interesting to see how Eddie Howe will use him. In midfield, or at left-back?
If he is to be the left-back, he could be a Trent Alexander-Arnold type of playmaker who uses his extraordinary vision, passing, and crossing to become a focal point of Chelsea’s attack. That would create a full-back pairing of former Chelsea academy players on Tyneside as Tino Livramento will eventually be asked to replace Kieran Trippier following his arrival from Southampton this summer.
Newcastle’s Smart Investments
Newcastle investing large sums in such young talents is a very promising sign and continued evidence of the influence of Dan Ashworth. Many had expected the Toon to replicate the mistakes of Manchester City and Chelsea when those clubs came into exceptional wealth, but it hasn’t happened.
To date, each and every Newcastle transfer under the PIF ownership has made sense, and while some have not been successful they have not hurt the progress of the team in any way. Only Chris Wood and Matt Targett haven’t worked, but they were able to recoup their money on Wood by selling him to Nottingham Forest, and Targett is at least a solid squad player.
The Future for Targett and Hall
Targett may well find himself on the move following the arrival of Hall, if the plan is for the youngster to play left-back, and Newcastle will be confident of recovering much of the fee paid to Aston Villa for the former Saints defender.
If Newcastle can finalise this deal, they will come to view it as a steal and Chelsea will end up regretting it. Allowing such a high-end talent to leave, regardless of the fee coming in, is yet another sign that Todd Boehly’s Circus are not a well-run organisation.
Leave a Reply