Glen Johnson has warned Chelsea that they would be making a grave error by parting ways with England winger Noni Madueke this summer.
Madueke played a key role for the Blues in Enzo Maresca’s first season in charge, recording 16 goal contributions in 41 games in all competitions.
The 23-year-old has improved each year at Stamford Bridge and most recently caught the eye on England duty with his impressive display against Andorra.
Despite those displays, Madeueke’s long-term future at Chelsea appears to be in doubt, with the club seemingly willing to listen to offers for the winger as they close in on the signing of Borussia Dortmund youngster Jamie Gittens.
A figure of around £50million could be enough for Chelsea to part ways with Madueke, with reports suggesting that Arsenal are weighing up a potential move.
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However, former Blues defender Johnson has strongly urged against the move, and reckons the winger could go on to become a ‘world beater’ in Maresca’s side.
‘I like Madueke,’ Johndson told aceodds.com. ‘He’s similar to (Mohammed) Kudus, he’s got that explosive speed and probably goes past people too easily, in the sense that it looks like he doesn’t concentrate.
‘If you could pin him down and remind him what he’s good at and just tell him to do that every single time, he could be unstoppable.”
‘Sometimes it looks like the game’s so easy for him that he just goes through the motions a little bit.
‘If you could really get into his head, he could be a world beater. I think he’s definitely worth keeping and working with and ability wise, he could be unstoppable.’
Despite speculation linking Madueke with an exit, Maresca appeared confident that the winger would not be heading for the exit this summer.
‘Noni is our player, you can read a lot of speculation at the moment but we consider Noni our player for the coming season,’ Maresca told reporters last week.
Elsewhere, Johnson was keen to issue a warning to Nicolas Jackson, who watched from the sidelines as new summer signing Liam Delap notched up his first goal for Chelsea on Wednesday morning.
Delap was brought in to provide competition with Jackson, and Johnson said the Senegal international will have to become more consistent if he is to secure himself a long-term future in Maresca’s side.
‘At the start of last season, he looked the best he has in a Chelsea shirt, but he’s not that consistent and there’s games where he goes missing,’ he said.
‘To have a new player come in with a big reputation, that can push each other. We’re either going to see the best of Nicolas Jackson or he probably won’t be there next season.’
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