Chelsea needs to be more than winners of the transfer window

Chelsea has had possibly the best transfer window of any club on the planet, but the Blues need trophies to be successful.

Chelsea has certainly struck all the right chords in the transfer window, but it will all be a song and dance if it cannot deliver at least one piece of silverware this season. The walls of Stamford Bridge have barely been able to contain the flurry of new faces that have been arriving over the past few months. Chelsea’s changing room is growing in stature, but if this does not translate to achievements on the pitch, it will all be deemed thriveless.

Rightly so; Frank Lampard has invested the £200 million left from the sales of Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata into several of Europe’s most sought-after individuals.

Timo Werner and Kai Havertz are set to be the future of German football having already taken the Bundesliga by storm. Hakim Ziyech has proven on the grandest domestic stage he is capable of rubbing shoulders with the Premier League elite. Ben Chilwell is the anomaly considering his lack of European pedigree, yet he is an established English international and clearly suits the project that Lampard has been engineering since he took over the hot seat. Stir these elements together, along with the sizeable presence of Thiago Silva on a free and the already star-studded squad, then you have an ensemble that is more than qualified to be winning silverware.

That is now the next goal for Chelsea; to turn their fantasy team into a real-life, fully functioning organism that can exist not merely on paper, but in the flesh of the field. After almost every triumphant transfer window in the Roman Abramovich era, the Blues have justified their heavy spending through silverware—this chapter should be no different.

Granted, it won’t click instantly. Players will still be adapting to each other’s games, new environments, different tactics, developing relationships and shift in styles. Throwing together a bunch of talented stars does not necessarily equate to success.

Take the epic Real Madrid side of 2003/04—Iker Casillas, Roberto Carlos, Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Guti, David Beckham—for example. They were an interstellar line-up that could only manage fourth in La Liga and the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Even with the addition of Michael Owen a year later, the club failed to win a major trophy. This is not a comparison between Chelsea and the great Galacticos, merely a demonstration that a collective of such ability can still fall from its high ledge.

If Lampard can combine his new additions to this current equation, then the common denominator can only be a positive one. Already, he has reached the FA Cup final, only to lose out to Arsenal which is a blotch Lampard will certainly want to remove from his CV. This, and the League Cup, are competitions that Chelsea should not only be challenging for, but should be the bookies’ favorites. Whilst others rest for mid-week European action or a crucial league fixture, the Blues’ depth can be used to its full potential and a Wembley win would be expected.

The Premier League is a slightly different affair. Liverpool and Manchester City, for now, are head and shoulders above the rest of the division’s body. Yet, neither have heavily recruited this summer and both have had kinks in their armor exposed. Liverpool understandably switched off on its road to the title, whilst City experienced the chaos Chelsea can cause when the Citizens surrendered their crown at the Bridge in late May after a fine performance from the home side.

Now with extra firepower, there is no reason Chelsea should not be closing the gap on the top two. The thought of being at the summit will be tossed aside by many, but those optimistic enough will believe that this side has every right of being back where it belongs.

More pressingly perhaps is ensuring European football is in the bag once again in a more convincing fashion than the previous campaign. This means fending off the potential threats of those who feel they deserve to be in amongst the racing pack: Manchester United, (whom Chelsea lost to on three occasions to in 2019/20), Arsenal (a win, draw and loss), and Tottenham Hotspur (two victories).

In Europe, the Blues may have more of a chance than many are giving them credit for. The Blues are no strangers to the Champions League, but they have felt like distant outsiders in the past few years. They were outclassed by Bayern Munich in the round of 16, which is nothing to ashamed about as the Germans breezed to become eventual champions. Bayern and fellow finalists Paris Saint-Germain were the only real world class sides in the competition and this season’s edition may be no different. The likes of Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid—once juggernauts of the game—have somewhat fallen behind the times, making way for a new generation of underdogs like Lyon or RB Leipzig.

This could be Chelsea’s chance to take advantage of this gap in the market. Werner, Ziyech, Silva and Havertz all have experience in the tournament, so who’s to say the Blues cannot mount a realistic assault on football’s most elite domestic prize?

Yes, the Blues have trounced all competitors in terms of transfers and new arrivals, but if Chelsea cannot transform their expensive purchases into solid silverware, then questions will hang over Lampard’s head.