Pep Chavarria to Chelsea transfer: Rayo Vallecano left-back is a late bloomer but could his mentality help Xabi Alonso? | Football News

Pep Chavarria is certainly not your typical Chelsea signing. He did not make his debut in Spain’s top flight until he was 24 years old. His European bow came aged 27 in October in the UEFA Conference League against Swedish side Hacken. He was sent off.

But perhaps the Rayo Vallecano left-back’s rise is part of the appeal. Now 28, having exceeded expectations again at Rayo, this energetic and wholehearted player can bring a bit of what has been missing at one of the Premier League’s true glamour clubs.

Marc Cucurella’s departure for Real Madrid presents a vacancy on the left side and Xabi Alonso has come to win trophies not just develop saleable assets. If Chavarria can help him do that in the here and now then that is the priority. It is not all about wonderkids.

“There are players who develop later than others,” Jose Ramon Rodriguez tells Sky Sports. “He has taken a different route.” Rodriguez was Chavarria’s coach at Real Zaragoza and saw this up close. “He has had to struggle a lot to get to where he has reached.”

When Chavarria joined Zaragoza in 2020, he arrived from third-tier side UE Olot. But Rodriguez knew that he was capable of much more. “We saw the talent right away. He was able to perform at an intensity well above the level of the Spanish second division.”

While the physical capacity was never really in doubt, other aspects did have to be developed. “We could see that his progress could be very positive and very good. But this is a player who has improved a lot, both technically and in his decision-making,” he explains.

Chavarria’s mentality is a theme to that comes up time and time again in conversation with Rodriguez. “He was a player who sacrificed himself a lot, who liked to train a lot,” he adds. “His way of training never let him down. He would always give the maximum.”

Rising up with Rayo Vallecano

It is perhaps telling that Andoni Iraola was in charge at Rayo when Chavarria was brought to the club in 2022. He is a coach who values players who can bring real intensity to a team’s performance. Iraola loves his full-backs to overlap and Chavarria can do that.

He has since shown that he can do more than just get up and down the flank, becoming more comfortable underlapping or stepping into midfield, adding elements to his game. But that reputation as one of the hardest-working full-backs in LaLiga is what underpins it all.

Inigo Perez has helped bring more from Chavarria during their three seasons together at Rayo. The player naturally describes him as the best coach that he has worked with, allowing him to flourish as a modern full-back involved in all aspects of the team’s play.

Stats that show what he can do

For Perez and Chavarria, last season was the culmination as this modest club from Madrid made history by reaching a European final. Chavarria was a key outlet for Rayo, having over 2000 touches in LaLiga and supplying a stream of crosses from the wing.

Chavarria ranked among the top dozen players in the competition for crosses from open play and corners won. But it was a dual role for Rayo because he was also among the top dozen players for blocking crosses and winning possession in the defensive third.

Are we talking about a player with a wand of a left foot who can be Chelsea’s creator in the way that Alex Grimaldo was for Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen out on the left? Probably not. But as a willing runner who stretches the play, his could still be an important role.

Concern about ability to adapt

Inevitably, there will be question marks over his credentials, questions that he will need to answer. Chavarria has never even played abroad, let alone in the Premier League, perhaps the most physically demanding domestic competition of them all.

Although robust and full of running, could he be targeted at set pieces given the rare emphasis on this aspect of the game in the modern Premier League? It is a potential vulnerability, although it is a challenge that the tenacious Cucurella was able to overcome.

Chavarria’s end product in attack will need to improve too. There was one spectacular strike against Atletico Madrid in September but that was his only goal last season. Indeed, he had more red cards, including one late on against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu.

What the rest of us do not see

But Rodriguez is backing him to make the step up because of his attitude. What the television cameras do not pick up but the background checks do is that Chavarria has the right mentality. “He is a team player who gives 200 per cent every day,” he reveals.

“He is a very good team-mate who creates a very good atmosphere and every team-mate wants to have him in the dressing room.” Those qualities are more difficult to measure but Alonso will be acutely aware that more resolve is required from this Chelsea squad.

Chavarria typifies that. “When he was with us in Zaragoza and there was a time when the team was not doing well at all, he was the player who took on the responsibility of wanting to improve, of wanting to do the right things, of never making excuses.”

Man to help raise the standards

How Chelsea supporters would welcome a player like that who will maintain standards when those of others might slip. This is neither a teenage sensation nor a transformative superstar, but Chavarria could still be a bargain who is emblematic of a shift in identity.

“When he went to the second division, the demand increased and it increased again in the first division,” says Rodriguez. At every step along the way, Chavarria has shown that he can handle it. “This mentality makes you think that he could reach a higher level.”

If the Premier League is the next step, Chavarria will have to prove people wrong again. But he has done it before and his old coach is backing him to do it again. “If he goes to Chelsea, it is because he deserves it.” Not your typical signing. But maybe the right one.