Chelsea signed more than 15 players through the 2022/23 season. Just very few of them would have been said to have exceeded expectations, and the rest just about met expectations, but some actually fell considerably below expectations.
It should be noted before any player is mentioned, that no player was particularly put in a position to succeed by either then-permanent manager Graham Potter or interim Frank Lampard who came after him, but in some cases, the player should take a heavy chunk of the responsibility. Here are three Blues who fell way below expectations, considering what was realistically expected of them:
3 disappointing Chelsea transfers of the 2022-23 season
Mykhailo Mudryk, Forward, Ukraine
Mudryk was disappointing for a plethora of reasons, not least because he didn’t conduct himself impeccably off the pitch, while flattering to deceive on the pitch. Yes, it may seem harsh to mention his off-field antics here, but professional players have to represent the club very well on the pitch and off it, and while it’s more difficult to do on the pitch, the off pitch part should be a given. His actions on Instagram that was addressed by Tiktoker Joey Swoll, was a particularly bad look.
Mudryk’s poor performances on the pitch was not all down to him, as he was arriving at Chelsea having not played a game in a long time, so he was already disadvantaged fitness-wise. The signing was particularly disappointing last season because the club misjudged his readiness so poorly that they left out another new signing, Benoit Badiashile, in order to register the Ukraine winger in the UEFA Champions League at the end of the winter transfer window.
Mudruk went on to play fringe minutes in the competition from the time he was registered till the Blues got knocked out. To say he was a disappointing signing doesn’t imply that the performances were all down to him, or that anyone is calling for him to be sold. At some point, Mudryk’s touches and finishes were all wrong, as well as his dribbling. To put it into perspective, he missed five big chances in the league, while scoring zero goals.