Chelsea think Andrey Santos was only worth half of his £50m fee

McCoist believes Chelsea got one over United after selling Santos to them for £50m, and it looks like there are people in and around the Blues who think the same thing.

According to The Athletic, some people close to Chelsea are adamant that Santos is only worth half of the £50m fee United paid to sign him back in June. Chelsea were never going to sell him for £25m, though, especially with a club as rich as United sniffing around.

Santos started for United in their 2-0 defeat against his former club over the weekend, but he and Carlos Baleba lost the midfield battle. Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia were on the opposite side and absolutely dominated in the second half.

The numbers Lavia was putting up were sensational. Some Chelsea supporters were disappointed to see Santos go in the summer, but after his start to the season and with the way Lavia is playing, they will not care too much now.

As for Santos, he may have some regrets about leaving Chelsea. Xabi Alonso’s side have had injuries in midfield this term and never replaced Enzo Fernandez, so the Brazilian would have got game time if he remained at Stamford Bridge.

Why Manchester United are to blame for Andrey Santos’ struggles

Santos has received a lot of criticism from United supporters, but what did they really expect from him? At Chelsea, he was a simple and tidy midfielder and not much else. A good midfielder but nothing special.

Taking a look at some of his stats, not much has actually changed. For example, his passing has been pretty much identical.

As per FotMob, the 22-year-old is making 56.08 passes per 90 minutes and has a pass success rate of 89.1%. Last season, he made 51.49 passes per 90 and had a pass success rate of 90.1%.

Defensively, Santos is doing more at United. The Brazil international is making 12.31 defensive actions per 90 compared to the 9.25 he made in the previous campaign.

Honestly, how Santos is playing now does not look too dissimilar to last season, even some of the stats show that. His struggles are more of a reflection of United’s system and overall flaws under Michael Carrick.