Tiemoue Bakayoko was signed around much hype and expectation back in July 2017. The French international joined Chelsea for a fee of £40 million, however, he failed to live up to expectation in his sole season with the club in the 2017/2018 campaign. From inconsistent performances to mistakes galore, Bakayoko endured a poor year at Stamford Bridge with compilations of his mistakes posted on Youtube.
However, Bakayoko seems to be a man reborn after a solid spell on loan at Italian club AC Milan last season, showing he deserves a second chance at Stamford Bridge. The loan spell didn’t begin as planned for Bakayoko, and after a disastrous debut manager Gennaro Gattuso launched a scathing attack on the midfielder. However, the 24-year-old has come on leaps and bounds since and became a key member for AC Milan last season
Bakayoko appeared in 43 of AC Milan’s 52 games in all competitions, as the club narrowly missed out on the top four in Serie A. However, that didn’t take away from a solid campaign for the Frenchman who was top for both interceptions and Aerial Duels won in the AC Milan team, while also finishing in the top three for most tackles won.
If the stats above don’t prove to you that Bakayoko deserves a second chance than this next stat will. Bakayoko won the second most man of the match awards at AC Milan (5), behind only attacking midfielder, Suso (7).
As well as Bakayoko’s resurgence at AC Milan, Chelsea’s midfield wasn’t exactly solid last season. More often than former manager Mauricio Sarri failed to find a consistent trio of midfielders in his system. Ross Barkley and Matteo Kovacic both failed to impress the Italian manager being substituted a mammoth 19 times for one another up until February’s 6-0 defeat away to Manchester City.
Bakayoko could immediately solve such issues after his impressive loan spell at AC Milan. And after his brother and agent confirmed the French international’s desire to stay and fight for his place at Chelsea, he clearly has the hunger to want to succeed in west London.
