Chelsea finished the season in third place, 18 points behind second-placed Liverpool and 19 points behind the champions Manchester City. The Blues have just lost two senior centerbacks, Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, who were each important in their own ways. Everyone remembers how crucial Rudiger was because he started nearly every time he was fit. Christensen was often the back-up to Thiago Silva at the center of the three-man back line. The Dane often played as the right centerback, as well, playing 19 league games last season. Meanwhile, Rudiger played in 34 of a possible 38 matches in the Premier League.
The reason for bringing up these stats is to highlight that they’re both now gone and the Blues need to replace them with centerbacks of suitable quality. However, they have not been able to do that yet because of the sanctions currently weighing the club down. There is still a level of uncertainty in the transfer market as long as the pending takeover remains unfinished. The statement from Chelsea on Saturday morning means that the club—barring any extraordinary events—will have official new owners by Monday. This news means that the Blues can start playing catch-up with their rivals in the transfer market.
Manchester City scored the most league goals last season (99) and it hardly played its only nominal center forward as a striker throughout the campaign. The Citizens lost Sergio Aguero at the beginning of last season when he went to FC Barcelona after his contract ran out. While there was a glaring hole in Pep Guardiola’s attack, Man City has already made a move, even before the transfer window officially opened opened. The Premier League champions have acquired the services of two new forwards, former Chelsea target Erling Haaland and River Plate marksman Julian Alvarez. It seems that perhaps Guardiola feels his side is not scoring enough goals and he wants more. The Premier League champions are already moving—fast.
The Premier League runner-up, Liverpool, has also moved to address what it considers a position of need. The Reds have acquired the services of Fulham’s playmaking maestro, Fabio Carvalho. This is of particular importance when one considers that they created the most clear-cut chances last season in the league with 132. Liverpool also had two players ranked in the top three for big chances created with 18 each. It seems maybe Jurgen Klopp feels that not enough players are creating many big chances. He wants more. The Reds definitely do not want to come in second again next season and they’re making that clear in the transfer window.
Fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur is no doubt doing everything it can to secure Dejan Kulusevski permanently. His performances last season have been sensational as he picked up 13 goal involvements in 18 games he played for Spurs, creating six big chances, as well. He ranked second in assists (8) at Spurs, just one assist behind the Harry Kane, who led the chart. They’ll also be looking to make Rodrigo Bentancur a permanent Tottenham player too. Antonio Conte will want to push for a higher place in the league and be competitive in the Champions League next season.
This leaves Chelsea, who had both defensive and attacking issues last season.
The Blues are yet to even begin to address one side of the problem either due to the sanctions imposed on the club. Chelsea has been linked to Josko Gvardiol and Jules Kounde already, but nothing has been made official as the Blues cannot do business just yet. They’re also linked to attacking additions—depending on who you want to take seriously—such as Ousmane Dembele and Neymar. Man City and Liverpool already have centerbacks, fullbacks and central midfielders ready to go for next season, the same cannot be said about Chelsea. The positive result of the upcoming sale is that the Blues will now be able to hit the ground running and make signings.
Another good thing about this sale going through is that Chelsea can now sell players too. It already has a lot of surplus players on its books. Marcos Alonso, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and several others have been linked with moves away from Stamford Bridge. The Blues will almost certainly need to sell players before they even start buying, so the outgoings are arguably just as important. Transfer activity is one crucial aspect Chelsea needs to tend to as soon as it possibly can with Tuchel highlighting the need for a rebuild. Thankfully, those actions aren’t far off with the sanctions being lifted as early as Monday.
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