Report: Arsenal left absolutely baffled by £10.5m striker’s Chelsea move being allowed

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Chelsea’s deal for David Datro Fofana didn’t exactly dominate the headlines in January but both Arsenal and Everton appear to be unhappy.

Fofana excelled over in Norway, racking up 22 goals in all competitions for Molde in 2022.

Fofana understandably attracted Premier League interest but it was Chelsea who won the race.

Fabrizio Romano reported that the Blues had struck a deal worth €12million (£10.5million) to sign Fofana.

The 20-year-old has shown exciting flashes during just 62 minutes of Premier League action for Chelsea.

Big things are expected of the Ivorian but his move to Stamford Bridge has caused some controversy.

Arsenal and Everton unhappy with David Datro Fofana to Chelsea

The Daily Mail report that Fofana’s move came up during a recent Premier League meeting.

Work permit rules were a big topic of discussion with clubs wanting The FA to dilute the requirements.

Arsenal and Everton were far from impressed, noting that Fofana was given a visa despite falling short of the current requirements.

Fofana has only bagged three Ivory Coast caps and was coming in from a much lesser league in Norway.

Some exceptional cases can get through the work permit regulation and it looks like Fofana is one of them.

The Premier League’s explanation was – allegedly – that Chelsea gave a ‘good presentation’ and that convinced them to rubber-stamp the deal.

That could be detailed information on how Fofana would fit into Chelsea’s first-team plans moving forward.

Alternatively, it could be text animations that give off a flavour of a Year 8 ICT project.

Either way, you can imagine that Edu and Kevin Thelwell are now brushing up on their presentation skills as we speak.

Arsenal and Everton seem baffled by that explanation and would appear to believe that Fofana shouldn’t have been allowed to join Chelsea.

You could hardly blame Arsenal and Everton for trying to go for players similar to Fofana now, in the hope of securing work permits with nice presentations.