Sport
Chelsea’s worrying transfer strategy
Todd Boehly’s Chelsea should have been about taking things slow. The American is heading up the new era at Stamford Bridge, and after the successful but extremely volatile two decades of Roman Abramovich’s ownership, he preached a more considered, longer-term, collective approach.
Sacking Thomas Tuchel in the manner he did, with very little in the way of evidence of failure, because he didn’t quite suit the vision certainly pointed to a particular way of working. Buying Graham Potter out of his Brighton contract, paying a reported £21m in the process, did too. Potter’s entire reputation was built on the evidence that he can grow and develop clubs in his image, playing a brand of football with a certain profile of player in mind. It has emerged that Potter sought out assurances that poor results would not immediately be counted against him, even if it cost the Blues Champions League football this season.
To his credit, Boehly is keeping up his end of that bargain at this stage. Chelsea are 10th in the Premier League with one win in their last eight in all competitions, and although some fans began to chant Tuchel’s name during the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City over the weekend, there are clear signs that the club still back their man. For how long, though, only time will tell.
Chelsea’s issues run much, much deeper than Potter. Though he is not blameless, injuries have caused him countless headaches since he arrived four months ago. Anybody would struggle without N’Golo Kante for as long as Potter has been. Recruitment is the biggest issue, and although that has been the case since the latter part of Abramovich era, it has very much continued to hamper the club in the first couple of Boehly transfer windows, too.
The striker curse is something that has been taken more and more seriously in recent years, and strengthening up front is where the most pertinent examples of the problem in recent times too. Since Abramovich changed the face of the club 20 years ago, they’ve signed a number of strikers and only Didier Drogba and Diego Costa can profess to be fully successful. Romelu Lukaku’s £97.5m move from Inter in 2021 was earmarked as the missing piece at the time, but proved to be an unmitigated disaster. He scored just eight times in 26 league games and was loaned back to the Italian club last summer.
But knowing that he was likely depart from the moment he arrived, Boehly, who until this week was acting sporting director, didn’t tackle the Lukaku issue head on. It took a long time for him to move and a longer time for Chelsea to react; by the end of the window, it became about who was available, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was signed from Barcelona.
If anything, he has been worse than par for recent Chelsea front men, hitting his nadir when subbed on and off in the same game against City last week by Potter. To sum up the farcical nature of his Blues career, he joined off the back of the strong bond he’d forged with Tuchel at Borussia Dortmund. Tuchel was sacked just days after he signed.
Recent signings including Marc Cucurella, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Timo Werner are examples of how little forethought has gone into Chelsea’s transfer strategy. All were signed for big money off the back of decent form, or without a coherent plan for their place in the team. Benoit Badiashile is the latest defensive recruit, despite the fact that Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana joined last summer; injury has hampered his progress.
The age profile of a lot of these signings does at least suggest there is a vision in place. But too often, Chelsea are reactive, focussed on fixing instant problems and filling gaps with whatever talent they can find.
Last January, they signed Saul Ñiguez from Atletico Madrid. Once earmarked as a future star of Spain’s midfield, he’d fallen out of favour at the Wanda Metropolitan and needed a new start. Chelsea were only too happy to oblige, based on little more than opportunism and the faint hope that he could regain form. But 10 league games with no goals or assists later, he was on his way back to where he came.
This year has seen a repeat. Another out of form star, striker Joao Felix, has headed from Atleti to Stamford Bridge on another loan deal. This doesn’t feel like the coming together of a serious plan to turn things around.
Felix may perform well for Chelsea; he is certainly one of the most exciting players in Europe. But he is the latest in a symptom that is holding the club back; they cannot progress until create the transfer strategy to match the long-term vision Boehly promised.
