There’s often a debate over who has the most power between players and clubs, but it really just comes down to how replaceable a player is.
Antonio Rudiger has often found himself in and out of the line-up at Chelsea during his time at Stamford Bridge, so he’ll be hoping to nail down a regular starting spot under Thomas Tuchel.
There were even reports yesterday that said the club wanted to tie him down to a new deal, but Rudiger has opted to postpone talks until the summer because he wants to see a bigger sample size of what life is like under the German coach.
While that makes sense for the player as he doesn’t want to sign a new deal and then find himself out of the team, it does leave Chelsea with a big decision to make as his current deal only runs until 2022.
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A more recent report from Goal has indicated that Chelsea have already drawn up a shortlist to replace him, so there’s a chance he’s talked himself into being replaced if they feel they can sell him and upgrade in the summer.
The options are Jose Gimenez of Atletico Madrid, Leipzig’s Ibrahima Konate or Niklas Sule from Bayern Munich, so there are some promising names in there.
Perhaps it will still come down to Rudiger’s playing time and how much he impresses over the rest of the season, but he might be well advised to get that new deal signed asap if he doesn’t want to go anywhere else.