Chelsea handed immediate edge over Arsenal in £38m race to sign ‘next Lionel Messi’

Chelsea have been advised that the arrival of Liam Rosenior as supervisor has handed them an enormous enhance within the race for Genk’s new wonderkid.

The Blues aren’t any strangers to plucking expertise from the Belgian membership, having landed each Kevin De Bruyne and Thibaut Courtois as teenagers.

Goalkeeper Mike Penders, who’s presently on mortgage at Strasbourg, grew to become the newest starlet to swap Genk for Stamford Bridge final yr.

His former teammate, Konstantinos Karetsas, who has been likened to Lionel Messi, has now caught the attention of Chelsea and Arsenal.

Who’s Karetsas?

The 18-year-old, who made 39 appearances as Thorsten Fink’s aspect gained the Belgian Professional League final yr, has impressed once more this time period.

Karetsas has registered six assists in 18 league video games, whereas he additionally has a objective and laid on two extra in solely six Europa League matches.

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The midfielder, who was born in Belgium to Greek dad and mom, earned the primary of 9 caps with Greece final March.

He scored two of his three worldwide targets in opposition to Scotland in 2025, however was unable to assist his nation qualify for the World Cup.

Arsenal have been mentioned to have been near reaching a £37.8million deal to signal him in the summertime, however a switch failed to come back to fruition.

The Gunners stay eager on Karetsas, however European soccer knowledgeable Andy Brassell believes a change to Chelsea would serve him higher.

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Chelsea over Arsenal for Karetsas

The Blues do boast an abundance of younger attacking midfielders, however new supervisor Liam Rosenior is a superb developer of gamers.

It’s for that motive, and Arsenal’s depth of established senior expertise, that Brassell believes makes Chelsea a greater subsequent step for Karetsas.

“With Karetsas, he is been given such company at such a younger age by Genk and by Greece,” he defined solely to talkSPORT.com.

“However as somebody who performs recurrently for Genk and takes accountability on the pitch, each for Genk and for Greece, I feel Arsenal is definitely fairly a tough promote for the time being, except they’re shopping for him and loaning him out someplace else.

“If you consider, say, Ethan Nwaneri, who occupies a not completely dissimilar zone on the pitch to the one which Karetsas does, though he can come from deeper positions, he is a left-footed participant who drifts out proper after which comes again inside onto that left foot.”

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‘Being developed by Rosenior is sort of a compelling pitch’

“He likes to dribble gamers, go previous gamers. He is turn into higher and higher at delivering the ultimate cross,” Brassell continued on Karetsas.

“I feel there are extra targets to come back in his recreation, that is for positive. To go to Arsenal, how is he going to get a recreation for the time being?

“I simply do not see it. He is such participant, and he will turn into a extremely good participant, I feel. However he is solely going to turn into a extremely good participant if he performs.

“If abruptly there is a block on that, I do not know. Clearly, I can not know what is going on by means of his head, however I might say Arsenal is an Everest for the time being, though he is a participant with actual high quality.

“I feel with Chelsea, though there are different competing gamers in these areas during which he may play, if I have been him, I might fancy my possibilities extra of getting a recreation at Chelsea.

“Being developed by Liam Rosenior, I feel, is sort of a compelling pitch for those who’re in search of somebody to go prime stage.

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“So, may I see Karetsas signing for Chelsea and possibly getting loaned out elsewhere? Yeah, possibly that may be a risk.

“I feel the expertise is so large, it could make sense for a Premier League membership to signal him for the time being.

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“However I am simply not fully offered on whether or not he instantly will get first rate recreation time at a Premier League aspect.

“If an enormous Premier League membership picks him up, it is all about selecting the correct one to verify he is developed accurately. And I feel really, I might fancy Chelsea to do this higher than Arsenal.”