Badiashile definitely not for sale; definitely — report

Today at 12:27 AM

Definitely

There was a time, not that long ago, that Benoît Badiashile looked like one of the smarter buys of the BlueCo regime. Young but already experienced, left-footed and good on the ball, and with a nice ability to read the game: he didn't come cheap, but at under €40m, he almost flew under the radar.

And it didn't take him long to start forming a promising partnership with Thiago Silva, which helped him finish with the third highest rating in our Community Player Ratings for the 2022-23 season — albeit based on just eleven appearances.

Big Bada Shile would pick up an injury at the end of that season however, costing him his summer and the first couple months of next season as well. While he would celebrate his return with a goal, he has yet to return to those initial levels we saw from him in that first half-season. He did get a run in the side at the tail end of last season as we finished the campaign strong, but he's been at or near the bottom of the pecking order under new manager Enzo Maresca. The only defender with fewer Premier League minutes to his name is Ben Chilwell, who's barely in the squad to begin with. (Marc Guiu, Cesare Casadei, and the largely injured Carney Chukwuemeka have fewer "A" team minutes among non-goalkeepers so far as well.)

He is of course signed through 2030, because BlueCo things, but you do get the feeling that he's quite unlikely to get anywhere near that date in a blue shirt. Obviously it's not easy to shift players with such massive contracts, but that also just depends on how big of a loss we might be willing to take.

Maybe we can attenuate this potential loss by letting it be known through the Telegraph that he's definitely, certainly, undoubtedly not for sale. Definitely. Defo. Most def. "Part of [our] long-term strategy." How about €20m? Anyone?