Photo: Chelsea FC

Chelsea finally confirmed the signing of Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco after having been in talks with Monaco for their 22-year-old midfielder since last month and it was believed that the deal would be wrapped up before July 1st and be announced on the 1st of July along the signing of Willy Caballero.

Bakayako’s deal that was supposed to be Chelsea’s first transfer signing of the summer has now become the third signing of the summer, as a five-year contract has now been confirmed for the French international and the deal has been announced today.

However, the move was complicated by several factors, and one of which was his niggling knee injury that might keep him out of action for a while.

Also, the deal that was set at £35 million took a twist as Monaco vice president Vadim Vasilyev demanded for a higher fee at the last minute from Chelsea despite the fact that Bakayoko has signed several mandates with mulitple agents and intermediaries. This made it more difficult to identify the parties who needed to be paid and slowed down the process of finalising the deal.

But at the end, everything was sorted out and the 22-year-old signed a five-year contract with the Blues.