Reasons Behind Chelsea FC's Limited Transfer Activity

Manchester United have become the kings of British transfer market in recent times. Their £200million+ outlay on transfers last season looks set to be matched this season, as they have so far spent a lot of money on new signings in this current transfer window.

Bastian Schweinsteiger (£14.4million from Bayern Munchen), Morgan Schneiderlin (£24million from Southampton), Matteo Damian (£12.7million from Torino), Memphis Depay (£25million from PSV Eindhoven) and Sergio Romero (free from Monaco) have all joined the club, and according to recent quotes from Louis Van Gaal, more signings are still expected.

While Manchester City have not yet exerted their full financial might, the signings of Raheem Sterling (£49million from Liverpool) and Fabian Delph (£8million from Aston Villa) indicates that they are just warming up. Kevin De Bruyne is expected to join the club sooner rather than later, with a £50million bid expected to convince Wolfsburg to part with their talisman.

Liverpool have also not been left out, as they have bolstered their ranks with the signings of Christian Benteke (£32million from Aston Villa), Roberto Firmino (£28million from Hoffenheim), Nathaniel Clyne (£12million from Southampton), Joe Gomez (£3.5million from Charlton Athletic), James Milner (free from Manchester City) and Danny Ings (free from Burnley). Arsenal have only signed Petr Cech (£10.9million from Chelsea), who is considered an upgrade on the club’s current back-up options (although Wojciech Szczęsny has been allowed to leave on loan to AS Roma).

Which brings us to the main point of discussion… what is going on at Stamford Bridge?

Credit: CFC Unofficial https://www.flickr.com/photos/cfcunofficial/16746473404/ /

At the conclusion of the successful 2014/2015 season, the Blues were linked to several of Europe’s most exciting players like Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, Koke etc. But so far, only Radamel Falcao (on loan from Monaco) and Asmir Begovic (£8million from Stoke City), who are basically replacements for two of the club’s recently departed legends Didier Drogba and Petr Cech, have joined the club’s first team, along with a plethora of youth signings like Kenedy, Nathan and Danilo Pantic.

Jose Mourinho, in his pre-match press conference ahead of the International Champions Cup opener against New York Red Bulls, claimed that while he is happy with his current squad and doesn’t expect many new signings, he would be open to replacing any outgoing players, citing the imminent departure of Filipe Luis as a case in point.

"‘We are a very happy group, the players feel it. We are a club in peace. We are a club where our future has to be bright. At the moment we don’t want players. It’s simple. We must be ready because it looks like the market is open, and because it looks like the market is open there is always a risk somebody comes for one of our players or one of our players shows an interest in leaving. We must be ready to answer to it.‘In this moment we need a left-back because I think we are selling Filipe Luis now or tomorrow. We need to go the market, we need to find a club that accepts a bid before 31 August, and we are going for a left-back. In other positions we have no space.’"

He did admit that the club is hunting for a central defender, with an official £20 million bid for John Stones rejected by Everton last week, as well as a replacement for the departing Filipe Luis, although the club is expected to complete the signing of Augsburg’s 21-year old Ghanaian left-back Abdul Baba-Rahman before the end of the transfer window.

However, the club’s current stance on transfers has the majority of the Chelsea faithful, and even the general footballing community, baffled. While there is no question that Chelsea still possess one of the strongest squads in Europe, the team’s struggles in the second half of last season was well documented.

With the recurrent second half drop in the performances of Cesc Fabregas and Oscar, coupled with the injury problems suffered by Diego Costa and Loic Remy, the team struggled to find any real form of creativity going forward. All the burden fell on the young shoulders of Eden Hazard who at that point had become a marked man, a situation no less reflected in the UEFA Champions League second round ties against Paris St. Germain where he was practically marked out using football’s darker arts.

Mourinho was essentially forced to use the same starting eleven time and time again due to a relative lack of confidence in the available back-up options. Also, as with the case of both Manchester clubs who struggled to replicate recent title-winning forms after failing to bolster their squads for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons respectively, the need to improve a title-winning squad cannot be over-emphasized. This makes his recent claims even more difficult to understand.

Mourinho is reputed to be an expert at using the press to play his legendary “mind games”. In this case, though, recent evidence suggests that he may actually be stating the facts as they are.

By Ronnie Macdonald from Chelmsford, United Kingdom (Jose Mourinho Uploaded by Dudek1337) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons /

Mourinho’s acceptance of

the club’s need to expand the capacity of Stamford Bridge

to boost revenue could be the biggest clue to the reason for the club’s current stance on transfers. With the expansion expected to require an outlay of over £500 million, coupled with the reported

bid of £11 million annually made for the rights to use Wembley Stadium

during the expansion period, the need for key big money signings could be pushed to the back-burners as all available cash would probably be needed. This would be similar to what we witnessed during Arsenal’s construction of the Emirates Stadium.

RELATED: Chelsea FC Own Wembley Stadium

Another clue could be the flurry of youth signings that have been made by the club over the past few weeks. Just last week, Kenedy (£6.3million from Fluminense) and Danilo Pantic (£1.25million from Partizan Belgrade) joined Nathan (£4.5million from Atlético Paranaense) as part of Chelsea’s famed loan army, with the latter two sent out to Vitesse Arnhem for the 2015/2016 season.

Key academy players like Isaiah Brown and Lewis Baker have joined the Dutch Eredivise outfit as well, while Tomas Kalas and Nathan Ake have joined Championship side Middlesbrough. Most notably, last season’s Championship Player Of The Year, Patrick Bamford, has been sent on season-long loan to Premier League side Crystal Palace after signing a new 3-year contract. Marco Van Ginkel has also joined another Premier League team in Stoke City, in a bid to gain important first team minutes and top flight experience.

The flurry of transfers and loan movements of the club’s top youth talents probably indicates that the club is looking to either help the players get adequate game time and boost their chances of future opportunities at Chelsea FC, or at the very least generate enough attention for these players in a bid to boost the club’s earning power through future transfers, as was the case with Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne.

The inclusion of Victor Moses (24) and Bertrand Traore (20) in the squad for the new season as back-up options for the first team, the promotion of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (19), as well as the club’s reported bids for John Stones (20) and Abdul Baba Rahman (21), also indicates that the club is looking to players who would provide adequate squad balance for the future, especially with Branislav Ivanovic and John Terry being on the wrong side of 30.

Credit: Alexdeangelis86 /

Everything about Chelsea FC’s recent transfer activity indicates that the club is looking to maintain the balance of the squad without breaking the bank. The expected expansion of Stamford Bridge is a basic necessity of the club to help boost revenue.

To put it into perspective, according to a recent ranking compiled by Forbes of the top 20 most valuable football clubs in the world, only West Ham (19th most valuable with Boleyn Ground capacity of 35,016) and Juventus (9th most valuable with Juventus Stadium capacity of 41,254) have smaller seating capacities than Stamford Bridge (6th most valuable with stadium capacity of 41,798), which makes their position even more remarkable, considering the fact that all the clubs around them boast capacities of over 60,000.

So the need for the expansion of Stamford Bridge far outweighs the need for new big name signings if the club intends to continue to be a force in European football. But it doesn’t help assuage the sense of uncertainty surrounding the club, especially with the lacklustre performances during the recent pre-season friendlies against New York Red Bulls and PSG.

However, Mourinho’s recent decision to sign a contract extension, which would keep him with the Blues until 2019, indicates that he is on board with the club’s recent approach to transfers, which is good news for the fans. The fact that he is also unfazed by the recent activities of rival clubs in the transfer market should also be a source of reassurance to supporters of Chelsea FC.

To comment, scroll to the bottom of the article, hit ‘Login’ on the top right of the comments section and do so through a Facebook, Twitter or Google account to allow yourself to join in the discussion.

Next: Chelsea FC Are Uber Cool, And Other Weekend Ramblings

More from The Pride of London

Home/Chelsea FC News

Reasons Behind Chelsea FC’s Limited Transfer Activity

By Ejoh Celestine | Jul 27, 2015

More from The Pride of London