Winston Churchill’s quip about the United States holds true for Chelsea FC. After exhausting every other option, they’ll do the right thing.
Within the final 48 hours of the 2018 summer transfer window Chelsea finally sold Thibaut Courtois, giving him the appropriately perfunctory valediction, broken the world-record for a goalkeeper and signed Mateo Kovacic on loan from Real Madrid. In order, the primary motivations for these moves are: a one-man hostage stand-off, panicked realization of having to choose between Willy Caballero and Marcin Bulka as the starting goalkeeper, and a deal sweetener from the other side of the aforementioned hostage negotiations.
If the ends justify the means, Chelsea earn full marks for August 8. If motives, purpose and strategy count for anything, the Blues once again varnished the facade of a professionally-run club.
This site has spent more than enough time (years, actually – thank you, Barrett) laying out how Chelsea should have handled Thibaut Courtois. Not much more to add. Suffice to say they got it right, but long overdue. Long long long overdue, and without Courtois learning a damned thing about professionalism or proper conduct.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is one of Chelsea’s more inspiring and promising signings of recent years. The 23-year old goalkeeper was in the sweet spot of being a high-quality, roundly-capable day-one starter while still being off the radar screens of most clubs. It’s been some time since the Blues caught the football world off-guard by making a quick strike for a young player with massive upside, the sort of player about whom other clubs would say “We didn’t even know he was on the market!” It’s been just as long since Chelsea put their financial resources to good use in service of such a player and the club’s future.
In short, it’s the sort of move we have grown accustomed to seeing from Manchester City and Liverpool, and longed to see from Chelsea.
But it should not have come to this. Maybe not Kepa, and certainly not now. Had the Blues moved more decisively earlier in the summer they would have signed Allison Becker for less money. Allison has much more experience than Kepa. Being only two years older than Kepa, both players could have equally long careers at Chelsea. Kepa brings better distribution and more intrigue than Allison, but those do not justify the wait or the cost.
Likewise, had the Blues closed the deal for Aleksandr Golovin in July they would not have needed to take Mateo Kovacic on loan. This not a knock on Kovacic, but his coming to Chelsea has as much to do with his relationship with Real Madrid as any desire the Blues have for his services.
Chelsea may still end up with Nabil Fekir or Anthony Martial before the window shuts. Or, if history is any guide, they will announce someone altogether different and even more unknown than Kepa Arrizabalaga.
If that happens, Chelsea will then have more players completely unfamiliar with the team, the coach, the tactics and the conditioning demands for a season starting in two days. Arrizabalaga will likely start against Huddersfield. His passing could be a significant component of Maurizio Sarri’s tactical build-up. But because he arrived days before the opener instead of weeks, Chelsea will have to wait weeks before he can bring the range of talents to bear.
Likewise, Kovacic and any deadline day arrivals will likely not see action for several weeks, perhaps not until after the first international break. Had the Blues made their moves earlier, their new arrivals would be on par with the current set of Blues. At the very least, they would be at the level of the World Cup returnees. Instead, they are well behind the curve, which delays their productive entrance into the squad.
Antonio Conte took flak for the amount of time he kept new players out of the lineup. He insisted they needed weeks or months to learn his system and become fit enough to handle his demands. Maurizio Sarri’s system is at least as complicated and – depending on the position – more physically demanding. And Sarri had a late start himself, also due to Chelsea’s poor handling of Conte’s firing and Sarri’s hiring.
Nearly the entire club are a few paces behind the curve and out of step with each other. Much of that was completely avoidable.
Chelsea are finishing the transfer window with strong, smart business not because they wanted to and not because they planned to but because they ran out of other options. A remarkable confluence of events led to the day when they had little choice but to sell Thibaut Courtois, buy Kepa Arrizabalaga and take Mateo Kovacic on loan. They have never been so lucky before.
And they will never be so lucky again. And they will never have such a strong transfer window again unless they cease the hope-and-pray method and take the initiative over this club’s direction. They cannot let players or other clubs drive their window for them. If the club deconstruct this transfer window backwards and forwards, learn where they went wrong, where they missed a decision point, how things flipped in or against their favour and where they should have acted differently, future windows will have a similar result but on a better timeline, a better budget and a better mood around the club.
Jorginho, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Mateo Kovacic – oh, and Rob Green, of course – could go down as one of Chelsea’s best transfer windows. If only the Blues could take credit for making it happen.