Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, Liverpool and West Ham United… all these clubs, like Chelsea FC, will be taking part in the 2015/2016 European competitions.
However, unlike Chelsea FC, all these teams have begun the process of strengthening their sides in preparation for the campaign by making key signings for their respective first team squads.
Manchester City have just completed the signing of Raheem Sterling, who is definitely an upgrade on the club’s current first choice right midfield option, Jesus Navas. Arsenal have sorted out their long standing goalkeeping problem with the signing of Petr Cech, who is much better than the club’s incumbent ‘keeper.
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Liverpool, meanwhile, have managed to snap up James Milner and Danny Ings while sniffing around the free-transfer market. More importantly, they have made a massive effort to solve their problems at right-back with the signing of Nathaniel Clyne. Roberto Firmino has also joined in a bid to put an end to their goal scoring problems.
Manchester United have strengthened their team at both the right-back and central midfield positions, all in the space of one week, by making 3 crucial signings: Matteo Darmian, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin. When added to the arrival of Memphis Depay, this already makes them quite formidable for the new season.
Also, Southampton have quickly replaced Nathaniel Clyne with Sporting CP’s Cedric Soares, while West Ham have snapped up Dimitri Payet and Angelo Ogbonna from Marseille and Juventus respectively.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have brought in Radamel Falcao and Asmir Begovic. Now both can be considered as quality players that are good enough to grace the starting 11 of many top sides in Europe (although that may be a questionable sentiment in Falcao’s case), but they have only been signed as back-up options to 2 of the team’s best players.
Apart from them, the club’s focus has been on acquiring future talents, with the signings of Nathan and Kenedy. Which begs the question… what is going on at Stamford Bridge!
the fact that rivals still have significant gaps yet to plug leaves the Blues in a favourable position
According to The Sun, as reported by The Telegraph Sport, Jose Mourinho is getting frustrated with the lack of transfer activity at Chelsea, and the recent flurry of signings by key rivals for next season’s EPL title, as well as prospective Champions League opponents, would most likely make the boss even more agitated.
In spite of the current situation, I personally do not feel that the club needs to hit the panic button just yet. Even with the number of deals done by rival clubs, Chelsea still have probably the most complete and balanced squad in the league.
Furthermore, the capture of Begovic and Falcao have managed to put the squad at par with that of the 2014/2015 season, with Begovic replacing Petr Cech and Falcao replacing Didier Drogba.
While other clubs may have signed players ready-made for their respective first teams, the fact that each still have significant gaps yet to plug leaves the Blues in a favourable position.
Man Utd still haven’t found either a suitable replacement in central defence or a quality striker with the exits of Falcao and Van Persie. Arsenal also have to find a striker capable of pushing them higher than the third place they achieved last season.
Manchester City, meanwhile, still have significant weaknesses in defence and defensive midfield to paper over, while Liverpool are a top striker, defender, left-back and goalkeeper away from becoming genuine top-4 contenders. That’s a whole lot of holes to fill, isn’t it?
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Also, apart from Ardan Turan, who has completed his €41million transfer to Barcelona (subject to the new president’s approval), all the players that the club have been linked with (Antoinne Griezmann, Paul Pogba, Koke, Antonio Rudiger, Baba Rahman etc) are still available.
Additionally, in recent times Chelsea have been heavily linked with Charles Aránguiz, with an £8million bid expected, as well as Pedro Rodriguez of Barcelona who is reported to have agreed to join the club. The latter of deals is apparently worth £21million after his buy-out clause was reduced as part of him signing a new contract.
One reason for the lack of real transfer activity could be the current effort being made by the board to secure Wembley Stadium for the next 3-4 years. With plans in the pipeline for Stamford Bridge to be redeveloped into a new 60,000+ capacity stadium, a temporary ground is needed. The club is rumored to have offered £11million per year for the right to use the stadium, whose capacity will be reduced to 50,000 for regular football matches.
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Another reason could be the current issues with the plethora of players that are returning to the club from their various loan spells. While some have already been sent away to new teams (Lewis Baker, Anders Christensen, Mario Pasalic, Marco Van Ginkel etc), Jose Mourinho has formed a loan squad that will train separately during pre-season under the guidance of Eddie Newton and Paulo Ferreira until their fate is determined.
So its not all gloom and doom at Stamford Bridge, even though the current situation is in stark contrast to the speed at which the club secured its key signings last season. With the summer transfer window still a long way from closing, I expect that Chelsea will break the 2 or 3 key deals that will ready them for the new campaign.
Are Blues fans concerned? Or do you have faith in Mourinho to get done what is necessary come the new season? Get involved and sound off in the comments below!
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