Chelsea must act quickly in the transfer market after changes

One of the recurring themes of Chelsea’s past few seasons has been that of delayed player arrivals. Every year, it leads to the same excuse of lack of a proper preseason for the team and more importantly, the new players. The latest of which was Romelu Lukaku, who has now secured a one-year loan move back to Inter Milan. After all, he proved he lacks the talent to play in the Premier League. Every terrible aspect of his game during his time at Manchester United was still present for the world to see. A manager cannot do much with a player that shows zero effort during 90 minutes, even if they put together a preseason.

The rest of the team, however, deserves a proper preseason with Thomas Tuchel. When Chelsea won the 2014/15 Premier League title, all of the crucial players were signed at the very beginning of the transfer window. It was almost the same during Chelsea’s 2016/17 title-winning campaign. Apart from David Luiz, the rest of the main starting XI was there from the beginning. Even though Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech arrived before preseason under Frank Lampard, the days between the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons were very few as a result of the Project Restart after the pandemic. Now, the Blues only have a couple of weeks before preseason starts, so they need to get down to business right away.

Chelsea must act quickly to secure its targets in the summer transfer window

Chelsea cannot afford further delay in incoming transfer movement considering how rival clubs are moving in the summer transfer market. Apart from Man United—who is undoubtedly the biggest mess of any of the ‘big six’ sides right now—all four of the remaining traditional top sides have made significant improvements to their teams. Even clubs like Aston Villa, Newcastle and West Ham are beginning to improve their squads. It is a World Cup year after all. Thus, no prominent or fringe player would be looking forward to a late move to a new club due to the uncertainty that comes along with a transfer of this nature.

The Blues are already short on their defenders following the departures of Andreas Christensen (Barcelona) and Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid). If further reports are to be believed, both Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso are vying for a move back to their home countries of Spain with the Blaugrana, as well. A case could be made for filling the spot left by Saul Niguez too, who left after his loan period with Chelsea came to an end. The Blues will also need to replace the aforementioned Lukaku with a proper goal scorer. Suffice it to say, there are holes to be filled all over the pitch this summer if the reigning Club World Cup Champions want to compete.

Tuchel needs new players to strengthen his team, plain and simple. He will also require time to implement his style and compare new players with the returning loanees from the previous season. Chelsea has been linked with a handful of players already, time—of course—is an important factor in all of these decisions though. Any further significant delay in making incoming moves will have serious negative implications if the club is not careful.

The new owners are under no circumstances sitting still. The overall purchasing of the club, change in board members and other formalities all required Todd Boehly’s full attention, effort and time. However, it now seems as if all of those formalities and minute details have been sorted at this time. It is now time for the focus to shift to adding players to the men’s team. The Chelsea Women’s team has already made two significant signings in Kadeisha Buchanan and Eve Perisset. It is time for the men’s team to do something similar and strengthen its ranks with new faces. Otherwise, in a few months, the Blues’ faithful will find themselves using the same old excuse about players not getting a proper preseason to gel with the team when the title charge

How long do you think it’ll be before Chelsea signs its first men’s player of the summer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter!