Chelsea’s shaky history with signings in the January transfer window

Chelsea has had its fair share of ups and downs in the January transfer window, let’s take a look at the Blues’ highs and lows.

It’s that time of year again, the infamous January sales window. Over the past decade, the footballing world has decided to truly get involved in the festivities and last year, Premier League clubs spent a whopping £230 million on new additions during this period. Some of the arrivals were undoubted successes, think Bruno Fernandes for Manchester United and Jarrod Bowen for West Ham. Meanwhile others were more questionable, Odion Ighalo for the aforementioned United and Cedric Soares for Arsenal, to name just a couple of the flops. Over the past decade, Chelsea has had its own mixed bag of January acquisitions. At the risk of being too cliche at the end of the year, here’s two good and two bad from the last few windows:

The good

Christian Pulisic

We don’t have to go too far back for the first name on the list. Christian Pulisic was purchased in January 2019 for just under £60m before being immediately loaned back to Borussia Dortmund for the remainder of the season. Although Pulisic wasn’t able to make an immediate impact at Stamford Bridge, he arrived just in time for the start of Frank Lampard’s reign and perhaps more crucially, a transfer ban for the club.

Pulisic had a mixed start to life under Lampard, but his performances post-lockdown quashed any negative reviews. This season, Pulisic has struggled with injuries, but has finally started to become a prominent member of the team once more. It is unfortunate that this coincides with a particularly bad run for the club. However, his 15 Premier League goal contributions last year were more than enough to prove his undoubted potential. Maybe it’s too early to say but for me, Pulisic has been one of the top signings in recent years.

Gary Cahill

For the second positive purchase, I was torn between two. First up, Nemanja Matic, who arrived from Benfica in 2014 having spent two rather unsuccessful years at Chelsea earlier in his career. In three years, Matic won two league titles, a League Cup and was named in the PFA Team of the Year before departing for Manchester United for almost double the fee Chelsea paid for him. So, there is a lot to be said about Matic, but the player I’ve decided on is Gary Cahill.

Cahill made almost 300 appearances for the Blues across eight seasons. In that time, he was named in three PFA Team of the Seasons and was made club captain after John Terry’s departure. The club won eight major trophies throughout Cahill’s tenure, most memorably the Champions League in 2012. Having arrived in the January, Cahill made five appearances in the tournament, playing the full 120 minutes of the final as Chelsea became the first club in London—and only one to this date—to lift the historic cup.

The bad

Gonzalo Higuain

Because 2020 was so awful, I’m going to be kind and not list Fernando Torres here. Not just because that claim has been done to death, but also some of the criticism is a little harsh anyway. I think it’s true to say though that a lot of Chelsea’s worst signings all arrived with great promise and a large number came in the form of world class strikers. Without further ado, the first poor signing is Gonzalo Higuain.

Higuain joined the club at the start of 2019, linking up with Maurizio Sarri under who he scored 36 league goals for in the 2015/16 season. The Argentinian had already scored eight goals that season in a loan spell at AC Milan and managed a further five in 19 appearances for the Blues. Not the worst return, but far from what was expected, perhaps a little optimistically considering he hadn’t played in the league before. I think more than anything, Higuain symbolised the rather boring style of play under Sarri, as well as continuing the club’s trend of signing overpaid, underperforming strikers—think Alvaro Morata, Alexandre Pato and Radamel Falcao.

Mohamed Salah

Unlike the other names on this list, Mohamed Salah’s inclusion has little to do with his individual performance. Salah made 11 appearances after joining in January 2014. He was then sent on loan to Fiorentina and Roma for the next two seasons, before joining the latter on a permanent deal. The rest as they say is history.

Salah is today one of the best players on the planet, unfortunately the Premier League club he represents wear red and play 178 miles away from the capital. I could just have easily included Kevin De Bruyne, who was brought in two years before and was given even less of a chance than the Egyptian King. It is clear to see now that these two could have been two of the greatest signings in the club history, but instead are a faded memory. I’ve included Salah here mostly to remind you all of what could have been and to show that the January sales aren’t just for signing has-been strikers on loan.

Who are some players you’d like to see the Blues sign in January? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!