Despite recent struggles, Chelsea doesn’t need a superstar purchase in the transfer window, the Blues just need a bit of depth.
Just like with every Christmas present you want to buy, but at the last minute tell yourself it’s too expensive, Declan Rice has been in Chelsea’s “Shopping Cart” for a bit too long. Frank Lampard is bound to be getting email notifications soon reminding him his cart is full as the Rice saga has drawn all of the oxygen out of every other Chelsea deal. It appears there is no end in sight either.
Part of that is the difficulty, not to mention expense, of moving a young English player from a direct rival. The other side is that January is not the transfer market you want to enter, if you can avoid it. It is a month of notoriously rash buys, overpriced players and it is fraught with drama at every turn. However, the Blues should continue their trend of making a smart winter market purchases by looking around Europe for some depth at wing.
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Before the wingers, it’s worth noting that long-term Chelsea target and young Italian phenomenon, Gianluigi Donnarumma, is available on a free transfer after running his contract down. The AC Milan goalkeeper is currently in a fight with rivals Inter Milan at the summit of Serie A, and at only 21, is still projecting upwards. I have long touted Donnarumma as the most sensible option between the posts for the Blues—all the way back in 2017/18. His expiring contract and the allure of London could make Stamford Bridge a possible destination. Furthermore, the recent performance of Edouard Mendy—albeit he is only partly responsible for Chelsea’s atrocious play as of late – only further proves the point he is a stopgap for the Blues. Donnarumma and Mendy are not the crux of this article, however.
Chelsea has long had excellent depth at wing, perhaps even too many bodies at times that play out wide. Recently from Eden Hazard, Pedro and Willian to Florent Malouda, Damien Duff, Joe Cole, Salomon Kalou and Arjen Robben, the list could go on for the entirety of this article and I’d still likely leave some names off. This season, Lampard has just three natural wingers at his disposal: Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic and Callum Hudson-Odoi. A glaring reason for the Blues’ lack of fluidity in the past four or five games has been the injury to Ziyech and the long recovery of Christian Pulisic.
Chelsea fans have been screaming about going after Jadon Sancho because “we need another winger this” and “there is no one else worthy of a first team place that.” Yet, to move for Sancho now would be a massive mistake for the Blues. If Chelsea had gone for Sancho instead of buying Pulisic, sure. Even if it had opted to try and pry Sancho out of Dortmund instead of pursuing Ziyech, that would have made sense. Let’s be clear now, a serious issue Lampard has is not having the right players for the right positions—Kai Havertz case and point. Lampard has so many midfielders that he cannot play them all; bringing in a world class Sancho would only complicate that further, and effectively send Hudson-Odoi packing to Munich.
The Blues’ biggest need now is quality depth. They need Ziyech and Pulisic as the regular starters, with the hungry Hudson-Odoi breathing down their necks to get into the XI. Whether you think Timo Werner should be on the wing is a whole other conversation. Ziyech’s niggling injury only serves to reinforce this point. Chelsea does not need to go out and pay through the nose to get a winger who also needs to be starting every week, there is no room at the club for that—financially or tactically.
What’s the point in calling for quality depth without discussing some options though? Here are two names of players that have performed well and would complement this Chelsea team without breaking the bank or disrupting the balance of the team.
The Blues should first look to Juventus and free Federico Bernardeschi from Andrea Pirlo’s team. The powerful runner is only 26 and has fallen out of favour in Turin after the arrival of Federico Chiesa, and Pirlo has reportedly deemed him surplus to requirements. Bernardeschi’s contract expires in 2022 and after being rocked by COVID-19, Juventus is hardly going to let his contract run down and leave for free. The Italian predominantly plays right wing and would be looking for a move to work his way into contention for Italy and the Euros. He is not a goalscoring machine, but he can still provide; where he stands out his how he attacks defenders at speed. Chelsea could buy low on a player who has shown brilliance and potential.
The second option for Chelsea to pursue is Leicester winger Demarai Gray. Chelsea’s transfer history with Leicester is well known, and while the Blues have pried away core first team players in Ben Chilwell, N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater, Gray is decidedly not that. This could be an excellent bit of business for the Blues to make as his contract expires this year, so the 24-year-old could be brought in for free. It wasn’t long ago that Gray was being touted as one of the next star wingers for England, but his career has stalled with the Foxes. Gray mainly occupies the left flank, and with only one appearance so far this year, is undoubtedly going to be plying his trade somewhere else next season.
Cover is all this Chelsea team needs. It doesn’t need more star purchases, but good business and opportunity cannot be ignored—Donnarumma included. The Chelsea squad is big in all the wrong places, and almost three sets of defenders aren’t necessary. Just three natural wingers seems blasphemous at the best of times, let alone in a condensed season. Bernardeschi and Gray both need a change of scenery, and they should be considering a switch to Stamford Bridge.