Happy New Year’s everyone! The January transfer window has opened and with the injury crisis that Chelsea finds itself in at the moment, the board must act to keep the Blues’ season alive. It’s important that they make a number of key mores, so I’ve come up with three transfer proposals that will solve the reigning European Champions’ issues both in the short-term and the long-term. Therefore, with that being said, here are some transfers that the club should make this month.
1: Purchase a left wingback
This one is relatively obvious seeing as Ben Chilwell is out for the remainder of the season. There is also an uncertainty as to how long it will take Reece James to recover from his injury (hamstring tear, projected six to eight weeks). This leaves Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso as the only true, healthy wingbacks left on the Blues’ roster right now. Since we are talking about transfers specifically, I am not even going to consider bringing back Emerson or Ian Maatsen from their respective loans, but this could be the route the club goes for given it is a short-term fix rather than a long term one. Left wingback is the most pressing issue as many do not have faith in Alonso to play all these games with a high level consistently, especially considering he’s been running on empty recently. Although Saul and Christian Pulisic can theoretically play there, the Blues need to stop putting round pegs in a square holes and fix this issue now.
There are two players that come to mind as players who could both offer competition, but also take the starting spot from Alonso until Chilwell returns next season. The first player is Lucas Digne on a loan deal until end of the season and the other is Borna Sosa from Stuttgart.
Digne will be the short-term option, a good one at that, since Rafa Benitez has exiled him from the Everton squad. The Toffees have just confirmed his replacement in Vitaliy Mykolenko I think this should a be quite easy one to get over the line. Sosa, on the other hand, is only 23 and has been one of the best fullbacks in the Bundesliga for the past two seasons. He already has three assists and a goal this season, adding onto the nine assists he had last year. This would a be much more long-term option for the club and would offer competition to Chilwell for years to come.