It has been a long summer of speculation and rumors without any real movement from the Chelsea board. This has caused frustration amongst the Blues faithful because of the window that they had last summer, getting most of the business done early on. The board backed Frank Lampard and all reports had supporters believing they would do the same with Thomas Tuchel, especially of after capturing the Champions League in May. Tuchel himself stated at the end of the season that he wanted two or three signings to freshen the squad up.
We now find ourselves a little over a week until the new season arrives and Chelsea has only signed one player, Marcus Bettinelli, on a free transfer. How we got to this point, well to be honest, I have no clue. The amount conflicting reports that we see on a daily basis makes it unclear on who exactly the Blues are targeting and whether or not they are actually willing to pay the fee needed to sign them is a whole different conversation. For example, last week fans were led to believe Jules Kounde was Chelsea bound; a week later, everything has gone quiet. This is exact instance has caused confusion, and most importantly frustration, with everyone involved.
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Chelsea’s transfer window thus far has been incredibly confusing for numerous reasons.
Chelsea has taken a different approach to this window, which is something we haven’t seen in a while. The Blues have started a small fire sale of their academy players. Usually ever summer we see a plethora of academy players leave on a loan, which has been the case to an extent this year with Ian Maatsen, Billy Gilmour and Conor Gallagher securing loan moves. We knew about Fikayo Tomori’s departure for a while now, but since then, six Chelsea academy players have been sold permanently rather then being loaned out. The likes of Marc Guehi, Tino Livramento and Lewis Bate have all been sold—to name a few—with Guehi bringing in the largest fee in the form of £18 million.
Why has the Chelsea board changed its approach? Well, it has to do with the state of the transfer market. The Blues have found it very hard to offload members of the first team for fees they see reasonable, this is mainly down to the financial difficulties that the top leagues are currently going through. Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, Baba Rahman and Ross Barkley all would of been sold or loaned out in a “normal market,” but with the hesitancy of teams across Europe to spend money on these types of players, Chelsea had to find an alternative. This is what led the Blues down this road, the Premier League has much more financial muscle than anyone else in Europe and they have young and exciting English talent who many teams want. The solution was simple: sell the Academy players to English clubs to bolster the first team and insert some sort of positive clause (a buy back specifically on Livramento) to get these players back in the future.
The board has spent over two months selling players, so it’s now or never to show its signal of intent. It seems the Blues have finally done this with the reported £85 million plus Marcos Alonso bid for Romelu Lukaku that Inter Milan has rejected. It’s no secret Chelsea is in desperate need of a striker and Erling Haaland has been on the lips of everyone since June. Therefore, why stop the pursuit without making an official bid? Some clarity would be much appreciated. Make no mistake, Lukaku would be a wonderful signing for the Blues, it would just make more sense to go all out for Haaland, who is seven years younger. Dortmund will have to sell next summer because of his release clause; therefore, the Germans would be insane to reject a massive bid knowing he will leave for cheaper in 12 months’ time. All Chelsea supporters can hope for from this point forward is the board doing right by Tuchel. The club needs to provide him with the reinforcements he has asked for to mount a title challenge, especially if Man City accomplishes the signings of Jack Grealish, Harry Kane or both.
These are the ups and downs of a transfer window when expectations are so high, fans are either overwhelmingly pleased or flat out disappointed. Believe it when you see it because the prospect of signing a generational talent like Haaland is easier said than done, no matter if the Blues are European Champions or have all the money in the world. The current climate that not only the football world is in, but the world is in, makes it a lot easier to understand this. Let’s hope normality returns in the near future and Chelsea continues to position itself as the one of the best teams in the world.
What are your thoughts of the Blues’ transfer window so far? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!