• June 2, 2022
• Olaoluwa Nwobodo

Chelsea sold Tammy Abraham at the beginning of last season after Thomas Tuchel sidelined him in the second half of the season. Abraham wasn’t even named to the bench in the final of the UEFA Champions League at the end of the 2020/21 season when Chelsea won it. Tammy Abraham scored 6 Premier League goals for Chelsea that season, which was the same as Timo Werner and two more than Kai Havertz. Tuchel made up his mind quite early after assessing Abraham for about three games. It was strange, and maybe harsh. Abraham barely got game time under the German.

Abraham was sold to Serie A team AS Roma at the start of last season when it was obvious that he was not in Tuchel’s plans for the new season. Abraham went on to score 17 league goals for Roma in 37 league games. He also recorded the second-most goals (9) in the UEFA Europa Conference League in 13 games, so should Chelsea have kept him?

No. This is because regardless of whether Abraham stayed or left he was never going to play a substantial role for Chelsea last season, therefore it would have been completely silly for him to have stayed. Chelsea already had Werner and Havertz, Abraham was simply surplus to requirements. Yes, Werner was missing chances and Havertz was not doing much of anything at the time, but once the manager has made up his mind, it’s useless trying to fight it. There was no role for Abraham and therefore no place for him.

Furthermore, Abraham’s goal tally now may lead fans to think he could have gotten that with us, but he wouldn’t. Abraham scored 17 goals, three of which were penalties and 11 of which were non-penalty big chances, according to UnderStat. Abraham missed 19 big chances according to SofaScore. This means Abraham received 30 big chances in 37 games (0.8 per game). That’s plenty. In Abraham’s 2019/20 Chelsea league season, he received 31 non-penalty big chances and converted 9 (29%). This shows that Abraham was and is still wasteful. As wasteful as Werner. Werner received 23 non-penalty big chances in the 2020/21 league season where he converted 5 and missed 18 for Chelsea (22%). Yes, 22% is still lower than 29% and 36%, however in the context of the conversation, it’s a distinction without a difference. They’re both poor conversation rates.

If Abraham had stayed at Chelsea, he would not have received up to 30 big chances like he did at Roma. Romelu Lukaku, who was supposed to be Chelsea’s main striker received 5 big chances in the league. No, not converted, received. Lukaku converted two and still scored 7 non-penalty goals. So no, Chelsea should not have kept Abraham, even after his prolific season with Roma, because he would not have solved the problem Chelsea had with Werner and he wouldn’t have gotten the chances Abraham got at Roma.

The same applies to Olivier Giroud. Giroud received 13 non-penalty big chances for Italian Champions AC Milan. He converted 6, missing 7 (46%). A 46% big chance conversion is extremely impressive, however, had he stayed, he wouldn’t have gotten those big chances at Chelsea, and wouldn’t have played much anyway, even if Lukaku hadn’t arrived. Other than the fact that he wouldn’t have gotten those scoring opportunities at Chelsea, he was getting on in age, and he wanted to play a bigger role in the squad. Chelsea could not give him that role, so there was no way he could have stayed.

Hindsight can be tricky, and it can tempt one to go into revisionism. Don’t let it. Chelsea is a very different team from AS Roma and AC Milan. That players are performing well there is no proof that Chelsea was wrong to sell them, in fact, it is more proof that Chelsea was right to.

Do you think Chelsea was right to sell Abraham? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter