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While Liverpool's lavish transfer spend this summer has come as something of a surprise, the same cannot be said of Chelsea, which has embarked on another indulgent spree.

Chelsea's acquisition of versatile young defender Jorrel Hato, from Ajax, took their summer spend above the $300 million mark.

For much of last season, it had looked as though Liverpool was Hato's most likely Premier League destination, but The Daily Mail recently reported that Arne Slot was not totally sold on the teenager, which is ultimately why the Reds signed Milos Kerkez.

Hato can play at center-back as well as left-back, but Slot felt as though Kerkez would be a better bet than the 19-year-old.

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Speaking in June, the Mail's Lewis Steele said: “Someone told me, someone in the Netherlands told me that Virgil van Dijk absolutely raves about Jorrel Hato, but Arne Slot wasn’t as convinced, and that’s why they’ve reached Kerkez as the number one left-back target."

Hato was spotted at Anfield for a Liverpool game earlier this year, and the strong Dutch contingent in Slot's squad would have eased his transition to Merseyside, were he to have made the move to Liverpool.

As it is, he has signed a seven-year contract at Stamford Bridge, and after doing so, he said that he felt the time was right to move to England after making over 100 appearances for Ajax since breaking into the first team during the 2022-23 season.

"It feels strange to leave everybody in Holland, of course, but for me it’s a new journey with new people in a new culture, a new team, new competitions," Hato said.



I think I will be a good fit for the way Chelsea are playing, so I was sure about taking my step to Chelsea.

"For sure it was a big decision

I played seven years at Ajax and for me it was home – the people, the players, the coaches, the culture

"So it was not easy to leave, but my feeling was that at this moment I needed to make a step to the biggest club in the biggest competitions, and for me this was the right decision at the right time."


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