The Blues have a lot of business still to complete this summer and not a lot of time to do it in – but if any club can solve these issues, it’s Chelsea... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
Victor Osimhen would be Chelsea’s biggest signing of the summer transfer window if he arrives before Friday night
There are just four days left for Chelsea to do a whole host of business in this summer’s transfer window. And boy, do they have a lot to sort out.
Enzo Maresca has been at the club for nearly three months and has already started to shape and mould the squad into his liking, with many picking up on his ‘ruthlessness’ throughout the window in regard to the players he’s effectively exiled from the first team. But critics of the club’s transfer policy are also quick to point out the so-called ‘stockpiling’ of players that the Blues have been undertaking over the past few weeks.
Claims that the Italian now has 42 or 43, some reports even going as high as 45, players under his control in the first team are based in nothing but fantasy, and Maresca himself has done a lot to try and debunk that myth, even going as far as pointing out in a press conference last week that it’s effectively just some made-up number that many have conjured up in their witch-hunt of the ‘mess’ at the club.
“I’m not working with 42 or 43 players,” he explained. “You like to say we have 42 or 43 players but more than 15 players are training apart, they are not with the team. The noise is more outside because I’m working with 21 or 22 players since we are back from USA.”
“It’s already the first 11 we want, already the squad that we want but the first 11 we had against City is not always going to be the same for the season. I repeat again: I am not working with 42 players. At this moment, I am working with 21 players. Today’s session is with 20 players. Yesterday’s session was with 21. But the other 15 or 20, they are training apart. In the USA, we had 26 or 27 players.
“Chelsea players, yes, 42 or 43, sure, but they are not working with me every day. I don’t see them so it’s not a mess like it looks from outside. Absolutely not.”
So which is it? People critical of the way Chelsea conduct their business can’t have it both ways: they are either stockpiling players and have far too many under Maresca’s control or the Blues boss is too ruthless with his stars, and they need to be treated with more respect despite having encouraged the exact reaction they’ve received.
Either way, if Chelsea and Maresca have it their way – which they’ve so often have in the transfer window over the past 20 years – then they could still have at least two more players walk through the doors of Stamford Bridge before Friday night, when the deadline comes into effect. They may have even shifted another four or five players they deem surplus to requirements.
Whether it’s brutal or simply smart business, football.london has taken a look at what the dream end to the summer transfer window might look like for Chelsea as they try and finish off what has been a hectic summer on the right foot.
Signing players section
Of course, Chelsea’s priority target for the entire summer has been Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, even amid the 11 other signings. But little headway has been made over the past few weeks and it’s really starting to worry supporters that a deal may not be secured even after the sale of Romelu Lukaku goes through.
There have been other links to other potential assets up front – Samu Omorodion, Jhon Duran, Ivan Toney, Viktor Gyokeres – and a number of frontline attackers introduced over the summer with Marc Guiu and most recently the Portuguese duo of Pedro Neto and Joao Felix who combined for Chelsea’s sixth goal in the electric 6-2 win over Wolves last weekend.
However, despite all of that, Chelsea’s chase for the Nigerian has never faltered and they’ll be able to get the deal over the line before it goes down to the wire on Friday night in a dream scenario. If we’re talking a real dream scenario, they’ll even get the striker to take a slight pay cut in wages to be able to sign him on a longer-term deal but if they’re desperate for more firepower up front, the Blues will do what it takes to get him on the books.
Another star they’ve been heavily linked with over the past few days has been Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho. Whether the Blues need yet another winger is up for debate – unlike the centre-forward position – but there have been talks about a potential swap deal between the two sides.
Sancho has been left out of the Man United squad for their opening two games of the season and only played seven minutes in the Community Shield match against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium before he missed his spot-kick in the ensuing penalty shootout. The England international spent the second half of last season on loan with his former side Borussia Dortmund after a public falling out with manager Erik ten Hag, but the pair have drawn a line in the sand around the star’s exile from the first team – although his impressive showings in the Bundesliga reminded everyone how good the star can be.
If the links are concrete and there is interest from the Blues, then there are a number of players that they could utilise in a swap deal that are on the fringe of the first team or currently training away from the main group Maresca has outlined he’s working with.
Selling players section
This is where the majority of the business will be done in the last few days of the window if Chelsea really have their heads screwed on. While it’s not been the squad overhaul and subsequent clearing out of ‘deadwood’ Mauricio Pochettino oversaw when he arrived at Chelsea last summer, Maresca hasn’t been shy to tell players they’ll not be needed going forward.
Conor Gallagher has been the club’s biggest sale in terms of precedence; a £40million move to Atletico Madrid will see him some good, while youngsters like Ian Maatsen, Omari Hutchinson, Lewis Hall and Diego Moreira have all been shipped out for varying prices. Hakim Ziyech and Malang Sarr have also left on free transfers, while Alfie Gilchrist, Lesley Ugochukwu, Gaga Slonina and Bashir Humphreys have all been sent out on loan for experience.
The biggest player the Blues will want to rid themselves of after a rapid development of controversy over the last few weeks will be Raheem Sterling, whose statement regarding his future at the club after being omitted from the first matchday squad of the season – a decision he was told about two days before – has caused much uproar.
But he’s just one of 15 that are training away from the first team, according to Maresca, and if Chelsea want as few headaches as possible going into the new campaign, then most, if not all, will want to have their future sorted before Friday’s deadline.
A handful of other sellable players who are close or have been close to joining other clubs this summer include Armando Broja, Cesare Casadei, Kepa Arrizabalaga, David Datro Fofana, and Djordje Petrovic. Others like Ben Chilwell and Trevoh Chalobah, who the Blues have essentially forced out of the first team against his own accord, are another pair that will want to be spared from the adverse limbo-period between now and January in which they’ll get little to no gametime whatsoever.
Many will try to claim that there may be too many fires for Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali, Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart to put out with so little time left in the window, but they’re rich men in charge of a rich club – they’ll have more extinguishers than they can count if they want them. Ultimately, Chelsea have the power to force a number of these deals through, but in a dream scenario where everything goes to plan, they may not end up having to.
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