Rio Ferdinand has urged Chelsea’s board to pay Antonio Rudiger whatever he wants after he gave another superb display in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Leicester City.
The Germany star opened the scoring with a brilliant header from a corner, while N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic also scored as the west London side cemented their place at the top of the league table.
As well as netting, Rudiger was solid at the back as Chelsea recorded an eighth clean sheet of the campaign – though speculation continues to swirl around his future after talks over a new contract stalled.
Chelsea are believed to be reluctant to accept Rudiger’s demands, with the player looking for a salary in excess of £200,000-per-week, but Ferdinand believes he deserves to be one of their highest earners and they should do everything to keep him.
Speaking on BT Sport after the Leicester match, Ferdinand said: ‘Well I think they’ve got to pay him so he is feeling that he’s getting paid what he feels he should be, which is at the upper echelons of the squad.
‘Wherever the highest earners are, I think he sees himself as part of that. If you look in this squad of players you wouldn’t want to lose, for a number of week or a number of games, he’d be one of the first on your list in terms of you’d want to keep him in there.
‘Because his influence, he’s aggressive, he sets the tone a lot of the time, and when they need to shut the door at the back he’s normally the one who puts his foot in where it hurts.’
Fellow pundit Joe Cole agreed, saying: ‘He’s in a fantastic position, similar to what Callum [Hudson-Odoi] was in a few years ago where your contract is running down but you’re an important member of the squad.
‘He’s a fantastic player and Thomas Tuchel will just be wanting to get it done and dusted and signed because he’s so important.
‘He’s almost irreplaceable in the sense that, while there’s other great centre-backs at the club, I don’t think there’s any with his aggression and that influence he seems to have over the team. So he’s in great position.’
