Tactics and Transfers: Final Chelsea Transfers Could Ruin Brilliant Window

Mauricio Pochettino the Chelsea head coach / manager during a pre-season training session at WakeMed Soccer Park on July 18, 2023 in Cary, North Carolina. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images)
Mauricio Pochettino the Chelsea head coach / manager during a pre-season training session at WakeMed Soccer Park on July 18, 2023 in Cary, North Carolina. (Photo by Matthew Ashton - AMA/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 5
Next
Chelsea
Chelsea (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

The greatest youth players start getting significant game time in their ages 17 and 18 seasons. They’re not loaned out time and time again. They begin developing relationships with their teammates and adapting to the responsibility of the club they’re playing for.

No offense to the teams that will be used as examples here but there’s little about playing for a Championship or smaller continental club that teaches about the rigors and ins and outs of playing 2-3 times a week for a billion-dollar enterprise type of club. Tomatoes are not potatoes. Never were and never will be. It’s a mistake that Chelsea should simply stop making.

Cesare Casadei looks like he should be playing in the Premier League. Santos very well should be.

Though all of Cherki, Olise, Kudus, and Caicedo are great players there’s just little need to add them at the moment. Three of them though play in essentially the same position. The best position of a player Chelsea already added in this exact window.

Caicedo, I understand.  The desire for a slightly more experienced partner for Enzo who has a record of success in the Premier League makes sense. But at £100 million Brighton is possibly joking and Chelsea just not realizing it. Caicedo has one lone good season in the Premier League in a system that would make an energetic tackling central midfielder look good.

Anything above a base fee of £60 rising to £75-80 with fees is absurd and made even more absurd by the fact that Chelsea already has Gallagher, Santos, Casadei, Hall, James, and Carney who can play in the position and could all surprise with their ability.

The upside of any of those three easily outweighs the benefits of spending £100 million on a player.

Cherki, Kudus, and Olise are all exciting prospects.