Why Chelsea Have Signed Jamie Gittens

Smart or Unnecessary?

Jamie Gittens is set for a move to Chelsea this summer.

The Blues have agreed a £55 million deal with Borussia Dortmund, which would match his market value according to Transfermarkt. Just like any transfer, this one has divided opinion online amongst Chelsea fans - below I will detail why I think this move is great for both the player and Chelsea.

Firstly, he’s a tremendous fit for Enzo Maresca’s side. He’s publicly a huge fan of wingers that constantly leave their fullback guessing and have bags of pace. His wide players have to hold width and provide plenty of threat, driving either towards the touchline or inside onto their stronger foot. This has been proven by Noni Madueke’s improvement in the 24/25 season under him.

Jamie Gittens is very direct, a huge carrier of the ball averaging 5.53 progressive carries and 3.57 successful take-ons per 90. Comparatively to all wingers in Europe’s top 5 leagues, this ranks his progressive carries in the 91st percentile and his take-ons in the 99th percentile. These numbers could, without context, make it look or sound as if Gittens is a player who operates best with space, which is a criticism brought up many times regarding talent coming from the Bundesliga, given the league's embedded football philosophy.

Gittens is extremely good in tight spaces, often doubled up on in wide areas making him a very ‘jinky’ dribbler. Instead of using trickery Gittens is brilliant at using small body movements to fake out defenders and find himself a yard of space.

The graph above shows how Jamie Gittens is very similar to Madueke statistically.

Both average similar non-penalty goals and dribbles per 90 minutes. This shows how both wingers are exceptional ball carriers, something that we established are key components of an Enzo Maresca winger.

Alongside this, the graph below shows how similar Gittens is to Nico Williams of Athletic Club, one of the most sought after wingers in world football, especially after his exceptional performances at Euro 2024.

Another aspect of Jamie Gittens’ game that numbers can’t show, is his impressive ball striking.

He’s someone who always looks for opportunities to wrap the ball with the inside of his foot, never afraid to shoot from distance but clever enough to use that to his advantage. It is with this trickery that Gittens creates space behind the defenders right shoulder to allow himself to get closer to the byline and put a cross in. This again showcases his ability and willingness to go both ways. There’s 2 goals that particularly stand out to me in the 2024/25 season where his ball striking was really on show.

The first of those was in Dortmund’s 4-0 home victory vs. Freiburg, where Gittens received a pass from Rami Bensabaini in the half space between the 18 and 6 yard lines. He faces up his defender, feints to go around the outside of his man, cuts inside and manages to bend the ball into the top corner.

With bodies in the way and at a tight angle, he uses the technique I mentioned before, it isn’t a typical side footed finish where the ball is curling without much pace, he wraps the ball using a good blend of precision and power, leaving the keeper with no chance.

The second goal came when Dortmund beat Werder Bremen 2-0 in 2023.

Dortmund had manufactured an overload on the left hand side, Nico Schlotterbeck had gotten forward and managed to poke the ball to Gittens. The ball sat up beautifully for him before he smashed the ball home at the near post on his ‘weaker’ left foot - yet another great strike of the ball which came over 2 years ago, showing that his good ball striking comes quite naturally to him.

Finally, Jamie Gittens is a player who before Dortmund was in Manchester City’s academy between 2012 and 2018.

This may in any other circumstance be an insignificant detail but since Chelsea’s acquisition of Joe Shields in 2022, the blues have gone on to sign four former Man City academy players (Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, Tosin Adarabioyo and Liam Delap) as well as Jadon Sancho who spent last season on loan at Chelsea. This is great for the player, knowing he’ll be walking into a club where he already has relationships built with a few (not so) new teammates such as Lavia and Palmer (both of which he has shared the pitch with at various levels) will really help him settle in and build confidence quicker.

Tactically, we’ve established that Gittens is a good fit for a Maresca team which stems from both of their experiences at Man City.

Maresca was the elite development squad lead coach, then became an assistant to Pep before managing Leicester City. This connection has led to him adopting and adapting much of Pep’s philosophy which has rung throughout Man City’s academy since he arrived.

Verdict

Whilst Gittens is still pretty raw and hasn’t had much game time with just shy of 5,000 senior minutes at Dortmund, he’s got so much potential and is very smart despite the lack of experience.

Chelsea will be adding terrific home grown talent to their squad, already loitered with such. I think they may look at this move as not only smart, but a bargain in 2-3 years time.