Monday, February 3rd marked the end of the winter transfer window, during which teams could sign, sell, and loan players throughout January.
Despite a recent downturn in results, the board at Chelsea thought the best strategy would be to loan players out and not bring in any to replace their positions. The transfer strategy has usually been hellish on signing young players, refusing to sign players in their 30s, and giving out long contracts.
Chelsea's confusing transfer strategy does nobody any favours
The winter has not been very kind for the Blues as they have struggled to win games in the Premier League. In fact, Chelsea has managed to win just two of the last nine EPL matches.
Some of those games include a 2-0 defeat to Ipswich Town, a team with just three wins this season, and a 0-0 draw against Everton, currently in 14th.
The loss that hurt the most was losing 3-0 against Brighton & Hove Albion on Friday, February 14th at the Amex. The Blues were so pathetic that they failed to register a single shot on goal the whole game. Something they haven’t done the whole season and didn’t happen all of last season under Mauricio Pochettino.
Now it’s worth noting that most of the players Chelsea loaned out have not started many games and have not been very productive.
The players who were loaned out are: Renato Veiga to Juventus, Carney Chukwuemeka to Borussia Dortmund, Joao Felix to AC Milan, Ben Chilwell to Crystal Palace, and Axel Disasi to Aston Villa. But the most confusing part in all of this is why the Blues let these players go and did not bring in anyone to replace them directly.
Especially now with the poor form ensuing the injuries have also started to mount. On Friday against Brighton, Noni Madueke was added to the list of injured Chelsea players who will be out for an extended period. Madueke went off after 21 minutes with a hamstring injury.
He joins the list of Nicolas Jackson, Romeo Lavia, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, and Marc Guiu who will be out until April.
Veiga, who Chelsea signed over the summer from Basel for £11.8m, was playing limited minutes and mostly left-back, a position he wasn’t crazy about. His loan move to Serie A powerhouse Juventus for just £3.8m with no option to buy. Blues manager Enzo Maresca when talking about Veiga’s desire to not play multiple positions said:
If there is a player who just wants to play in one position, they're going to struggle.” While the Portuguese youngster was mostly limited to Conference League matches he was still an asset to the team when they wanted to give Marc Cucurella a rest day.
The other left back that was put on loan was Chilwell who has been with the club since 2020, but Maresca from the jump has not been favored at all. Playing him in just one game across all competitions.
So they decided to loan him to Crystal Palace. The problem is that if Cucurella gets injured for a long time, the Blues are in big trouble. Since they don’t have a natural replacement, this would force Malo Gusto, Reece James, or Levi Colwill to play left-back.
Take the loss in the FA Cup to Brighton & Hove Albion in which the Blues lost 2-1 in another lackluster performance. Chelsea had Jackson out and Guiu unavailable, so who did Maresca have to bring on late in the game?
19-year-old Tyrique George was brought on in the 74th minute, now this wouldn’t have had to happen if Felix was still on the team. It is now being reported that the hamstring injury Jackson suffered in a 2-1 win over West Ham United on February 3, will keep him out until April. Guiu is also out with a muscular injury, which further hurts the CFC’s depth at striker.
Jackson got off to a good start this season in his second year at Chelsea, scoring nine goals with five assists in 23 games. He has not scored in the EPL since December 15th against Brentford. The injury just puts another hit to a brutal stretch of performances for the Senegalese youngster.
Now the only striker left is Christopher Nkunku who has not lived up to the hype since Chelsea signed him from RB Leipzig in June 2023. In 21 EPL matches this season the Frenchman has started just four games in 21 appearances and has mustered only two goals and one assist. Throughout January there were rumors of Nkunku being sold or loaned out to FC Bayern Munich in exchange for youngster Mathys Tel who went to rivals Tottenham Hotspur on loan instead.
This begs the question, why would Chelsea loan off so many of their depth players? It makes no sense for so many reasons, when you consider the poor form they have been in throughout the winter, why would you loan out players who can make a difference?
All of these players could be making a difference right now, and if more players go down with injuries it will only beg the question, why did the board act the way they acted?
Right now the West London side are currently in sixth place in the Premier League table just a point behind Manchester City who are fourth. However, if the Blues' form doesn’t change soon, and they don’t win the Conference League, it could wind up being one of the most disappointing collapses in recent memory.