Chelsea have too much at stake between the January transfer window and the end of the season to hold off until the summer. Chelsea need at least one or two big deals as soon as possible.
With Christian Pulisic, Chelsea made one addition to the team for the summer but entirely failed to address the principal issue: they still might not make the Champions League. Spending another season in the Europa League is a very real possibility, and somehow some way they seem to be ignoring it. Chelsea have to strengthen the team right now as much as humanly possible.
The first move should be re-signing both Eden Hazard and Callum Hudson Odoi. Will it be hard? Yes, of course it will be. But Hazard is the best player Chelsea have, and is better than any player they have a chance of getting. Without him, the team will be worse and there’s no arguing that. As for Callum Hudson-Odoi, his situation has become something of a watershed moment for the club.
If it takes offering Hazard £400,000 a week, then that’s what Chelsea have to do at this point. As it stands, Hazard may like the idea of playing in Madrid but what kind of situation would he really be walking into? They don’t have a steady coach. They’re perhaps going to miss the Champions League, just like Chelsea, and the team is in complete disarray. At least Chelsea have decided on a coach, one who is actually there mainly for Hazard’s benefit.
In Madrid he would be jumping onto a sinking ship for the last few years of his prime, only to be blamed for the holes in the hull that were there long before he arrived. At Chelsea he could be a living, breathing and walking god. That does seem the better option, particularly at £400,000 a week.
Eden Hazard is doubly necessary because if Chelsea are really going to improve they need to convince players of Hazard’s level to join the team. They need players who want to play with Hazard, and there’s no two ways around it.
Chelsea will simply have to overpay Callum Hudson-Odoi in much the way they did Loftus-Cheek a couple of years ago. A contract of £75,000 a week with a clause stipulating if he doesn’t make 50 appearances over the next two years he can have a release clause activated at £30 million would do the job. Chelsea created this issue, so now they have to rebuild his motivation. Two years and a relatively simple contract could make that work in their favor.
Then comes the hard part: actually improving the team today while not damaging the future.
Chelsea should sign Gonzalo Higuain on loan. To do so they should strike deals with both AC Milan and Juventus. They should send Tammy Abraham to Milan on a two-year loan. It will be an upgrade on Aston Villa, giving him the top-level football he needs and therefore improving the club down the road. Abraham will allow Milan to let Higuain go. If Chelsea want, they can offer Milan an extension on the Tiemoue Bakayoko deal as well. The Italian club are short on money in the face of Financial Fair Play, so any deals that get them players for free are pretty simple.
Juventus, then, just need Higuain to be paid for. Chelsea can send them Willian to help cover the cost of Higuain’s wages as well as the end-of-loan fee that is reportedly part of the deal between Milan and Juventus. That would get Hudson-Odoi on the field more, killing two birds with one stone.
Chelsea need Gonzalo Higuain on the field to help get some of their many chances into the back of the net. Yes, he will be a little expensive for 18 months. Would it be better to miss out on the Champions League without trying anything?
Then comes the additions they must make over the summer. Mauro Icardi apparently has a very complicated minimum release clause that only activates in the first two weeks of the summer transfer window. When that happens, there’s really not any question Chelsea should be standing outside the front door of Giuseppe Marotta’s office the second the clock strikes midnight.
Chelsea have a lot of options. The only one they don’t have is missing out on the Champions League yet again. They cannot think about anything other than that.