For years the thing that has held Chelsea back has been their philosophy on transfers.
Chelsea’s owners Clearlake Capital and Eldridge Industries could easily create a dependable bond-like income of £25-35 million or more per season with a few changes.
They can do that as well as compete across all major competitions while regularly winning them as well.
If you know one thing about this column it’s that I have long believed Chelsea would and could be more successful in terms of results and profit if they shifted how it is they handle business in the market.
As usual, should the offer come about you all know I would obviously take up a role in recruitment at Chelsea and do us proud. As of yet, still waiting.
Now to the business side of things.
The good news is that Mauricio Pochettino is the right manager.
That the Blues’ hiring process eventually ended up there is definitely a good sign.
So we’ll build from there knowing that Pochettino prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation but also has played a 3-4-2-1 and 4-3-3 (though not by choice at PSG).
Given the way that the squad is built at the moment, it is my belief that year 1 of the Pochettino era should lean more heavily towards the 3-4-2-1 before transitioning later in year 2.5-3 to the 4-2-3-1.
There are multiple reasons for this but in terms of getting the best out of the most talented players in the team and creating some momentum and cohesion to move Chelsea into the Champions League places next season while evolving the relationships between players that makes the most sense.
Now this should be known outside of Christopher Nkunku I am of the belief that Chelsea would be best served not signing any additional players. Manuel Ugarte, I was happy to try for because of how talented a player he is. The state of Chelsea’s net spend could be done a massive favor by having a year of no spending. Transforming 600 million in one year into 300 million per year over two would provide a huge amount of breathing room.