Chelsea fans are enduring a second year of footballing misery this season, as they sit tenth in the Premier League, miles off the Champions League places and 1-0 down in their League Cup semi-final against Championship side Middlesbrough.
Mauricio Pochettino has been unable to build a cohesive team with the wave of new players he was handed in the summer, and a number of those recent acquisitions could already be on the precipice of an early exit from Stamford Bridge.
For example, Axel Disasi has been a regular in the side since joining in the summer. Still, he has been underwhelming at best, and now, with Athletic Bilbao's Aitor Paredes linked to the club, the Frenchman could be about to lose his place.
Chelsea transfer news – Aitor Paredes
According to a recent report from the Sun, Chelsea are keen to add Athletic Bilbao's Paredes to their defensive ranks this month, and even sent scouts to watch him play against Seville last week.
The report has also revealed that, alongside the Blues, Spanish giants Real Madrid and Serie A behemoths Inter Milan are interested in securing the 23-year-old's signature this winter.
Should Todd Boehly and Co manage to get ahead of the competition, then they won't have to break the bank to get this deal over the line, as the Sun claim that a fee in the region of £20m should be enough to tempt Bilbao into selling due to the defender's contract expiring next summer.
In the case this deal goes through, the comparison to former captain Cesar Azpilicueta might become hard to ignore, and if he performs even close to the level of the Spaniard, that could spell trouble for Disasi.
Aitor Paredes' style of play
Azpilicueta had a brilliant career in west London, and considering he was bought for just £7m, he might well be one of the greatest transfers in the club's history – having made 508 appearances in all competitions, while winning a plethora of major honours.
With that in mind, comparing the young and relatively inexperienced Paredes to him could be construed as too kind, but there are a couple of key similarities.
First, both are defensively-minded players who can be deployed as both a centre-back and full-back depending on what is needed at the time, and second, they're both Spaniards who – if this deal does go ahead – would have joined the Blues early on in their careers and at similar ages.
While Blues fans would surely be delighted with a defender who could potentially replicate the career of a former captain, Disasi might be less pleased, as he would surely see a dramatic drop in his game time if he wasn't just sold altogether.
How Paredes compares to Disasi
The former AS Monaco man has featured in 90% of Pochettino's Premier League starting XIs this season, but in the words of talkSPORT pundit Andy Jacobs, he's been "a disaster."
Unfortunately for the 25-year-old, the board also don't seem to have a particularly favourable opinion of him either, as only last month, TEAMtalk revealed that he was among several names that the club would be willing to sell in January to raise funds.
So, how do the pair stack up when you compare their underlying numbers? Well, while there are a couple of areas in which the Chelsea man comes out on top, such as tackles won and general passing accuracy, he lags behind in most other critical areas.
Stats per 90
Paredes
Disasi
Passing Accuracy
85.9%
89.7%
Shot-Creating Actions
0.48
0.45
Tackles Won
0.24
0.68
Blocks
0.83
0.79
Clearances
3.45
3.28
Miscontrols
0.24
0.51
Dispossessed
0.06
0.56
Ball Recoveries
5.48
5.08
All Stats via FBref for the 2023/24 Domestic Season
The Spanish "titan", as described by journalist Luis Calabor Nunez, comes out on top for shot-creating actions, blocks, clearances, ball recoveries, and he is dispossessed a lot less than the Frenchman.
At the end of the day, for as often as Pochettino is playing Disasi, he isn't showing much in the way of improvement, and if Chelsea can sign Paredes for £20m and offload the former Monaco man for around the same price, then this deal seems like a no-brainer.
