Red Star Belgrade striker, Richmond Boakye, claims he’ll put in his best performance against Arsenal on Thursday night amid speculation that Chelsea could be watching.
Boakye wants to put in a good performance against Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday. However, he insists that this is because he wants to help his team and not purely because he’s being linked with a January move to Chelsea.
“If I am destined to play for Chelsea then I will join them,” the £10m-rated striker told Belgrade newspaper Novosti (via the Sun).
“I won’t feel under pressure to perform even if they are watching me. I’m playing well for Red Star, and let’s see who wants me.
“I’m enjoying my football, and playing as well as I can.
Antonio Conte signed Boakye from Genoa in 2012 when the manager was in charge of Juventus and is said to be interested in bringing the 24-year-old to Stamford Bridge.
It’s therefore suspected that the Chelsea boss will be watching Boakye during Red Star’s clash against Arsenal at the Emirates.
The Ghanaian, who has under three years left on his current deal with the Serbian club, has already scored 14 goals in 21 appearances across all competitions this season.
While he obviously didn’t find the back of the net during Red Star’s first match against the Gunners, he did play for 80 minutes and he scored against FC Cologne. Therefore, it’s likely that he’ll start again on Thursday night.
Boakye is in fine form at the moment and if he’s playing for a move to Chelsea, he’ll probably be even more dangerous. We managed to keep him out in Serbia but Arsenal’s defence will have to be alert to deal with him this time.