Now that the transfer window has slammed shut in a new era, Pride of London ranks every single Chelsea summer signing from one to 10.
The summer transfer window has finally closed and Chelsea was able to get some signings over the line on deadline day, credit to them. There were some outgoings that they couldn’t process due to lack of time and lots of paperwork needing to be filed. The Club was still able to get some players out the door that were contributing next to nothing, overall it was a net positive. Here we are rating each incoming transfer in this window, based on their priority and their fit in the system. Here’s how we’d rate each incoming transfer:
Raheem Sterling – 9/10
Chelsea, over the past few years, has not been creating enough quality chances. This is partly due to not having enough creative passers on the team, but also because the Blues never had enough off-the-ball runners. The Blues have also needed someone with good finishing in addition to excellent movement and Sterling epitomizes that. At about 47% non-penalty big chance conversion rate, Sterling ranks quite high in terms of finishing.
The England international is also one of the very best at disrupting the opposition defenders with his movement and trickery. Yes, Chelsea has had very good movers off-the-ball in the past, but one major difference is that Sterling also has the finishing to go with getting on the end of high-quality chances. Werner was also very good off the ball, but he did not show enough dribbling or ball retention to occupy the wider areas. These all make Sterling a very good signing for the Blues, but perhaps the most important element here is the fact that he is a player that Tuchel trusts, which cannot be said about most of the Blues’ current attackers.
Kalidou Koulibaly – 9/10
Chelsea lost two centerbacks for free this summer. Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen were very important players for Chelsea, with Rudiger making 33 league appearances for Chelsea last season en route to finishing 3rd. Christensen was important in his own way, as Thiago Silva got limited minutes due to fitness and had to share those minutes with Christensen. This meant that CFC needed to get some CBs through the door that were of the level of the ones they just lost.
Koulibaly is most definitely of that level, at least. The Senegal international has been one of the best centerbacks in world football for the past five years. His anticipation and reading of the game are outstanding. All these factors make him a superb signing for the Blues. Furthermore, Rudiger was also a leader, and you can’t get any more “leader” than a national team captain in Koulibaly.
Marc Cucurella – 8.5/10
Chelsea needed a left wingback that could also be a starter if they needed him to be. They got that in Cucurella. Ben Chilwell was coming back from a long-term injury and it was impossible to know if he’d come back as the Chilwell that got injured in that Juventus game. The Cucurella signing became increasingly important as the former Leicester City man looked quite poor in preseason.
Of course, Marcos Alonso was originally supposed to be Chilwell’s backup, but he ended up playing 28 league games last season, and so with Chilwell just returning from injury and Marcos leaving for FC Barcelona, CFC was essentially looking for a starting left wingback. Yes, he cost more than Koulibaly and Sterling but when you’re buying priced assets from your domestic league, you should expect to pay a premium.
Wesley Fofana – 7/10
The Fofana signing is a tricky one. He’s a very good centerback and he’s still only 21. His reading of the game is superb, in fact, he leads the Premier League this season with 4.5 interceptions per game, so there’s no question about his quality. Chelsea also needed to replace Christensen so even after securing the services of the Senegal captain, Chelsea still needed to bring another centerhalf through the door. From that standpoint, Fofana is a very good signing.
However, Fofana is injury-prone, and in fact, played only seven games last season. This is not to say that he cannot be fit for extended periods of time for CFC, however, the risk is too great when you consider the money spent. This is obviously not a knock on Fofana, but the question is being asked to the board. At €82.5M, how likely is he to play 32 out of 38 league games? That cannot be answered now obviously. Chelsea could have searched outside England to find a CB that is not as injury prone and would definitely not have cost €83M but they chose not to. Fofana’s success is likely going to be determined by how long he can stay fit per season.
Denis Zakaria – 7.5/10
Zakaria came in on transfer deadline day in a loan deal with an option to buy. If Zakaria does well enough for the Blues, they’d pay €30M to Juventus to keep him permanently. Chelsea IS in need of depth at central midfielder and Zakaria is clearly a very good player. However, Chelsea has several players more like Zakaria, and less like Jorginho, and they needed someone more like Jorginho at the club so that Jorginho can be rested and he doesn’t have to play three games per week every week out of necessity.
Chelsea has sold Billy Gilmour and loaned out Ethan Ampadu. They only had Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Conor Gallagher to go into the season with before the arrival of Zakaria. That looks like a lot of options until you remember that Kante has not had consistent runs of games due to recurring injuries; Loftus-Cheek is a prime candidate for right wingback backup, and Gallagher is not a holding midfielder. This leaves Jorginho and Kovacic who would be the more realistic options for the pivot, so from that standpoint, the addition of Zakaria is a very good one indeed.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 8.5/10
If the premise of this transfer is that “Tuchel has worked with Aubameyang before”, then this transfer automatically gets 2/10. However, ignoring the fact that Tuchel HAS worked with the former Arsenal captain before, Aubameyang is still a potent center forward. If Chelsea can create the chances for him, he’d get the goals for sure. Chelsea needs a source for consistent goals. None of the current forwards except Sterling is a realistic option for that. Chelsea’s highest scorer last season in the league was Mason Mount with 11 goals. That says it all really.
Chelsea also lost one of the biggest goal threats of the past 5 years in Romelu Lukaku, as well as Timo Werner. Lukaku scored the most goals for the Blues in all competitions last season. Before the arrival of Aubameyang, Chelsea had many forwards, but no center forward, so they needed a center forward through the door, and they could’ve done much worse than the Gabonese.
Cesare Casadei – 8.5/10
Chelsea got Casadei for €15M, which suggests that he’s very highly rated indeed. He would not be expected to feature anytime soon barring any emergencies, and that’s OK. The Blues have been burned before by waiting until they lost key players suddenly before they started looking for replacements. This signing indicates that the Blues have learned from their past mistakes.
Carney Chukwuemeka – 8.5/10
Chukwuemeka is a highly sought-after talent who was at Aston Villa. He’s one for the future and he’s a very important signing in that the current academy players Chelsea has are nothing to write home about. The idea behind signing Chukwuemeka is not for him to feature straightaway as he still has a lot to learn at 18 years old. The idea is for him to be an understudy to some of Chelsea’s more senior midfielders so that he can take over when they finally leave, it’s a smart signing because it is the club putting things in place to avoid being in a panic situation further down the line.
Gabriel Slonina – 9/10
Slonina is a goalkeeper that was playing in the American Major League Soccer (MLS). He is only 18 years old and would likely be an understudy to Edouard Mendy. He’s already very tall and his age suggests that he has not finished growing. This may be the smartest signing for the future the club made this summer. The goalkeeping position is a unique one: you can go a whole season and use the same goalkeeper in every match.
Talented goalkeepers are not easy to get, especially in the current market. By getting a talented 18-year-old to understudy their first-choice goalkeeper, they have a player that has quite a lot of years to learn, as goalkeepers usually have the longest footballing careers since they don’t enter their prime until the middle or late twenties. Mendy’s current contract expires in 2025 and if Slonina keeps progressing at the rate he is, he’d be ready to step between the sticks as CFC‘s first-choice goalkeeper by the time Mendy is leaving.