The Blues have confirmed the arrival of the former Nice starlet on a five-year deal and he’s the second defender through the door this transfer window, following Ben Chilwell.
Potential
Malang Sarr is a really interesting player for a few years. At just 21, he has already played a lot of first team football at Ligue 1 level for Nice, and was once extremely highly rated. However, the French U21 international elected to run down his contract and leave the side for absolutely nothing.
Transfermarkt value him at 14.40 million and that’s certain to improve over the next few years as he’ll gain more experience across Europe and for Chelsea. The dovetailing with Thiago Silva, one is starting their career as the other is finishing it, could work out beautifully for the Blues.
Demand
As a left-sided central defender, he should have been in high demand across the top five leagues. Liverpool had space in their squad for another defender and Sarr looked perfect for them, but Chelsea either swooped first or swooped better.
Their director Marina Granovskaia called him a ‘top prospect’ and said the Blues could not miss out on this deal - which could end up helping them in more ways than one.
As well as having the potential to fill the heart of their defence for the next 10 days, Sarr could also help them bring Kai Havertz through the door. Bayer Leverkusen want to use the defender as a makeweight in that deal and could help smooth things over.
Traffic Jam
But Chelsea do need to sort out their existing central defensive options as well. They are currently stacked for options and when Silva arrives Frank Lampard will have seven centre-backs in the squad.
Lampard will need to trim the fat from Sarr, Silva, Antonio Rudiger, Fikayo Tomori, Andreas Christensen, Kurt Zouma and Ethan Ampadu - while the squad now contains three left-backs.
Out of those, Zouma, Christensen and Rudiger could all leave while you’d back Ampadu and Tomori to become future stars.
You can add Sarr to that list.