Chelsea, Spurs or Aston Villa – Where will Christian Benteke be next season?

Christian Benteke

Christian Benteke has followed up his end-of-season words that he wants to leave Aston Villa by handing in a formal transfer request.

Benteke’s star rose in 2013 as only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi scored more goals in an elite domestic league. He was the focal point and leader of Aston Villa’s surge from the depths of relegation struggle to what ended up as a fairly comfortable survival.

His combination of pace, power and goals made him one of the most dangerous players in the league over the last few months of the season. Aston Villa brought him to England from Genk for £7m last summer in a move that even Belgian football journalists were a little sceptical of.

Manager Paul Lambert learned how to harness his talents in the course of the season and has moulded him in to what he is now. Villa’s reward for this? A transfer request.

Immediately linked to him are Chelsea and Spurs. There is a third outcome though, and that’s that he stays at Aston Villa. So where will he be next season?

Chelsea have been linked to every striker this summer. However, they’ve only got into serious discussion with Napoli over Edinson Cavani, but even then, they backed away when the transfer fee started to climb.

They were linked to Falcao, Lewandowski, Suarez, Hulk, Dzeko and all manner of strikers. But, the thing is they’ve got £50m Fernando Torres showing signs of life, Romelu Lukaku who is as good a striking prospect as there is in the world at the moment, Demba Ba who they only signed a few months ago and newly signed Andre Schurrle who is able to play upfront. So why the link to every striker going?

Christian Benteke to Chelsea makes no sense. Put it this way- if Lukaku hadn’t returned from loan, and had instead been purchased, would they be linked? No.

Last season, Lukaku scored 17 Premier League goals in 35 games, many of which came off the bench. Benteke scored 19 in 34 games in which he started nearly all. Not much to split them.

Lukaku though, is 20. Benteke is 22. Lukaku scored more goals in Belgium and arrived to much greater fan fare. This is not to denigrate Benteke by any means, but it’s to say that Chelsea don’t need him. Why would they need Lukaku and Benteke when they possess such similar attributes?