€90m Chelsea transfer bomb: Zinedine Zidane sends clear message
New France manager Zinedine Zidane has potentially given Chelsea a major headache due to his stance on Malo Gusto.
The legendary former midfielder has overseen his first-ever international break in charge of Les Bleus over the last couple of weeks, and it has, on the whole, been a positive experience.
Zidane has experimented quite a bit. He made some surprising call-ups - like Como captain Lucas da Cunha - and tried to turn Man City attacker Rayan Cherki into a hard-working, box-to-box No.8.
The players Zidane didn't call up tell us almost as much about his new project as those that did make the squad. Les Bleus veterans Lucas and Theo Hernandez were snubbed, as was Chelsea full-back Gusto.
The former were omitted because of a desire to give fresh faces a chance; the latter, meanwhile, missed out for a totally different reason: Zidane does not trust the Chelsea star.
Gusto needs to leave Chelsea
L'Equipe has examined France's full-back problem, with only Bournemouth star Adrien Truffert emerging as a real beneficiary from this international break. 1998 World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu has bemoaned the lack of a full-back "pipeline" in France's talent development.
While this does not automatically preclude future call-ups, it does raise questions about Gusto's long-term future in the France set-up. It is quite damning that he didn't make the squad despite the lack of quality options in his position.
There is perhaps an argument to be made that Gusto ought to leave Chelsea in order to become a more refined player elsewhere. Of course, the caveat is that it is early days in the Xabi Alonso era, and the Basque has a history of improving players.
During his time at Bayer Leverkusen, one of his first major tasks was to make the team defensively solid (sound familiar?). He managed to achieve this after a few weeks. However, it must be said that teaching his full-backs - or rather wing-backs - to defend was not his strong suit.
On the contrary, Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo were among the most important attacking outlets in Alonso's system, so it is perhaps fair to suggest that he might not be the right man to turn Gusto into a reliable defender.
The 23-year-old actually already wanted to leave Chelsea this summer following the signing of Marco Palestra. With Reece James also still around, Gusto feared that he would struggle for minutes this season.
That hasn't happened yet because Palestra has been injured, but it could be a situation to keep an eye on. In the summer, Chelsea wanted close to €90 million for Gusto, which his suitors - chief among them Man City and Liverpool - were not keen to pay.
Should Gusto start pushing for an exit, Chelsea would likely have to bring their asking price closer in line with his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €53.1m. This would still provide them with a healthy profit after spending €30m on him in January 2023.
Where could Gusto go in order to improve? Using the Career Advice tool from data analytics firm SciSports, we can get a decent idea of his options. The home of Catenaccio, Serie A, could be a suitable landing spot, with Napoli and Juventus deemed strong fits.
Atletico Madrid are his third-best option. The Rojiblancos have become a lot more attack-minded over the past year, but it is difficult to imagine that Diego Simeone wouldn't be able to improve Gusto's defensive game. It's Diego Simeone, after all.
Real Madrid should also be strong contenders for his signature. In fact, they are the only club in his top 10 most suitable teams to get full marks in the "potential development" category. Jose Mourinho would surely be able to instil some defensive discipline in the full-back.
Of course, Los Blancos already have two high-profile right-backs in Trent Alexander-Arnold and new signing Denzel Dumfries, but the former keeps being linked with a Premier League return. Trent is in the same boat as Gusto in that his defensive contributions are constantly scrutinised.
If Gusto wants to save his France career, he may have no choice but to look for a new club.
