Chelsea chiefs are determined for Toni Rudiger's departure to be a one-off.
Blues manager Thomas Tuchel announced after victory over West Ham yesterday that Rudiger would be leaving once his contract expires in June. The Germany defender is expected to join Real Madrid.
Chelsea are determined to avoid a dangerous precedent, with key negotiations coming up with other Blues stars.
The centre-back will walk away from Stamford Bridge at the end of the season after rejecting the chance to become the club's highest-paid defender of all time on £230,000-a-week, says the London Evening Standard.
While Chelsea's hierarchy were prepared to go to such levels to keep hold of the Germany international, they were conscious of the risk of more players looking to run their contracts down to receive huge pay days.
They already face a race against time to keep hold of N'Golo Kante and Jorginho, who are both set to enter the final 12 months of their current deals. And with Andreas Christensen also set to walk away this summer as a free agent, there is a growing pattern of players being allowed to enter the final stages of their contracts.
That raises the prospect of Chelsea having to watch valuable assets go for nothing, or offer huge deals to keep them at the club.
Rudiger's situation has been complicated by the sanctions placed on Roman Abramovich, which prevent Chelsea from handing out new contracts until the club is sold. But the offer of £230,000-a-week was made before their Russian owner had his assets frozen by the UK Government – and it was determined the figures required to keep hold of the defender would be too much.
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