Chelsea are reportedly on the verge of signing Barcelona’s young sensation Marc Guiu. This is going to be their second signing in the Enzo Maresca era after that of Messinho (aka Estevao Willian).
The Blues are ready to trigger the £5 million release clause inserted into the 18-year-old’s contract. He will reportedly sign a long-term deal, as has become the norm at Chelsea. The London heavyweights also seem to have offered him a lucrative wage package to entice his attention.
Barcelona had reportedly offered Guiu a wage package of around £1.68 million-per-year plus added performance-related bonuses.
This would’ve been a significant increase to the £50,000-a-year salary he received in the youth deal at the club. In fact, with this new offer, Barca promised him £35,000-a-week itself.
But it appears that Chelsea have significantly increased on that offer.
The Blues made it clear to Guiu that they’ll be ready to TRIPLE that amount to give him a around £5 million-a-year salary.
This basically means he’d be receiving a wage package of around £104,000-a-week at Stamford Bridge.
This is over double the yearly package he used to receive before having a big breakthrough at Barcelona which saw him make six appearances and scored two goals for the senior team.
If these reports are to be believed, it appears that Chelsea are willing to pay the highly-rated Spanish striker more than some of their current major players.
That is because Cole Palmer receives around £75,000-a-week in his current deal. Youth academy graduates Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah are both on £50,000-a-week, while Malo Gusto earns around £45,000-a-week.
Guiu could actually become one of the top-15 highest-paid players at Chelsea by accepting these terms and move to London.
The Blues have earned a notorious reputation for overpaying their players and recorded a whopping £404 million wage bill earlier this year. Manchester City (£423 million) are actually the only Premier League club to have a bigger overall wage bill than Chelsea.
With that being said, there’s a reason why Chelsea are being able to pay big money to Guiu. That is because of his lowly release clause. As they don’t have to pay Barcelona a major transfer fee, they can invest a lot of money in paying the young forward instead.
Chelsea also have plans to integrate the 18-year-old into Maresca’s squad than loan him out to sister club RC Strasbourg. They want him to make an impression on the Italian gaffer in pre-season.
After that, they’ll let the coach decide if Guiu can play an important role in the first-team squad in the 2024/25 or probably needs a loan move to sharpen his goal-scoring skills and get properly adapted to the Premier League.
It’s quite clear that Chelsea are not messing around with their youth project.
They want the best young prospects in their squad to ensure the club can dominate the English scene for many years to come.
Only time will tell if their expensive investment on Guiu turns out to be a masterstroke or another financial failure under the BluesCo brand.