Well it was another dramatic end to the transfer window for Chelsea. Emotions are obviously high right now, and understandably so. But when the dust settles, I believe in terms of the overall transfer window, it’s been a good one for Chelsea.
First, the most important signing of the summer. Xabi Alonso. An elite coach, a proven winner as a player and a manager, an excellent man manager, with a strong mentality and as we saw with Robert Sanchez, a guy who can be ruthless in his pursuit of success. I firmly believe he’s the most talented manager in the league and if he fulfills his potential, could be at the level of Guardiola or Klopp. Chelsea have given him unprecedented power and completely backed him, getting in players he wanted of the profile he wanted, and getting rid of players he wanted out, in large part. They followed through on their promises to Xabi and delivered, in large part.
In terms of the transfer market, the goal of this window was to add experience and leadership, add quality in key areas, improve the culture and mentality, and get rid of toxic players and others who aren’t good enough. The club promised that, and again I think they delivered on that promise.
In defence we’ve added Maxcene Lacroix, Marco Palestra and Pep Chavarria. We’ve got rid of Benoit Badiashile, Tosin (to Spurs, which I think is hilarious), Marc Cucurella, Trevoh Chalobah, Mamadou Sarr and Axel Disasi. This has created a pathway for Josh Acheampong who so far has stepped up and looks a first choice starter under Xabi Alonso. Lacroix adds PL experience and leadership, and experience of winning trophies. He and Palestra both add physicality and height. Some made the case for another CB signing, but with Acheampong stepping up and Jarrol Hato able to play LCB and Reece at RCB if needed, and Aaron Anselmino as a squad player, I think we’re OK at CB without European football. I think next summer if/when we return to the Champions League, then we’ll need to sign another CB, but for now, we’re OK.
In attack, we’ve got rid of Alejandro Garnacho, Liam Delap, Nicolas Jackson, Marc Guiu, and added Morgan Rogers, Danny Welbeck, Geovany Quenda and Emanuel Emegha. Two of these are PL proven players, both with physicality and power. Morgan Rogers is one of the best players in the league in his position and already had an impact. Danny Welbeck adds leadership, experience and PL know how,
In midfield, we’ve added Valentin Barco and Jordan Henderson, and lost Enzo Fernandez, Andrey Santos and Dario Essugo. Valentin Barco I think is a hugely underrated signing. He’s creative and can unlock low blocks, but he also has a strong mentality and is good defensively. I think he has an important role this season. Jordan Henderson is a hugely important signing. He’s a culture setter, leader, who’s won everything at club level and can add a huge amount of experience and leadership. In short, he brings something we desperately needed. He actually made 22 starts in the PL for Brentford, so once fit can bring some experience off the bench in the league too.
Losing Enzo Fernandez in terms of quality is a blow, but we’ve replaced his goals and assists in Morgan Rogers, who is essentially playing the same role in our team that Enzo played, that inside left forward. And its very clear Enzo had become a toxic and divisive figure at the club - the very short and blunt club statement on his sale speaks for itself - so to move him on was important, and we got very good money, a joint British record, for him.
Of course, in midfield we all know we didn’t get in the other midfielder we needed. I don’t actually blame the club for this in large part. As readers of this site know, we tried all summer to sign a midfielder. We made good bids for Alex Scott, held talks for Alex Wharton, Manu Kone, and Martin Zubmimendi. As regards Lamine Camara, the Monaco sporting director admitted on Wednesday we’d been in dialogue with him over Camara for 10 days, so it wasn’t a last minute panic bid.
As we all know, we then agreed a deal for Lamine Camara which was 99.9% done, and in all other cases it would have been done. The medical was complete, contract agreed, deal sheet was ready, just final signatures needed. Monaco acted poorly and unprofessionally by pulling out at the last minute, simple as that. The player is apparently angry with Monaco for denying him his dream move and allegedly even the Monaco directors are furious at how their Sporting Director handled it. There was a good relationship between the clubs prior to this incident, which has likely been ruined. Some clubs may be skeptical of dealing with Monaco under this regime in future, and Chelsea certainly will be.
On Chelsea’s part, I felt we tried all window to get a midfielder, we spent weeks trying to do it, this didn’t all begin on deadline day - and if Monaco had acted professionally, we’d have done the job, so the frustration is understandable. That said, we should have got a midfielder over the line this summer, and that’s a failure on our part. But there were reasons for it, and I still believe overall we’re stronger as a squad.
In my view, and assuming Caicedo’s injury is only minor, the situation is not as bad as it seems. Reece James and Moises Caicedo are two elite footballers. It IS a huge risk to not have the depth of quality we need, but those two are top players when fit, and with one game a week, plenty of time to rest in between games.
We also have £125m burning a hole in our pocket from the Enzo sale and it’s clear we wanted a midfielder. If we continue to back Xabi Alonso as we have, I do expect us to use the next 4 months to plan to get a major midfielder in. We’ll probably have to overpay, but we have the money to do so.
Si reported that Alex Scott wanted to join us. He has 18 months left on his contract in January and it’ll be the last chance for Bournemouth to get the really big fee they want, so I think we’ll try for him in January. Remember, he was our top target midfield all along, so getting him would be an excellent outcome.
One comment from the club on Wednesday I actually respected. Instead of saying they’re happy with the squad we have and that we don’t need anyone else, they actually admitted publicly through the media that there’s still gaps in the squad which will need to be filled and funds reinvested in the squad. They near enough admitted they failed to complete the squad as they wanted to this summer. It shocked me, as it’s one of the first briefings which has been honest with fans. No bullshitting about the squad being complete, they admitted its not and committed to improving it in future windows. Which I suspect means, going all in for a midfielder in January.
But how do we cope between now and then? Well, between now and Jan 6th - 18 weeks - we play 19 league games, including only 3 midweek PL games. Basically one PL game a week for 15 weeks. There could be 3 cup games in that time, so at most 6 midweek games and 22 overall in 18 weeks. For reference, last season we played 28 games in that time, including 6 CL games and 12 midweek games, so this season, we’ll have a lot more time between games and more rest for the players.
Hopefully, Moises Caicedo is back sooner rather than later to resume his partnership with Reece James. Its been an effective one. In the last 12 months, a pivot of Reece James and Moises Caicedo played together in the 3-0 wins over PSG and Barcelona, the 2-1 defeat of Liverpool, 4-1 defeat of Aston Villa and draws v Arsenal and Man City. With one game per week for the majority of the next few months, they’ll get ample rest between games, so won’t be overplayed, and lessening the injury risk.
If Moises Caicedo is out for a few weeks, Reece James and Romeo Lavia / Valentin Barco will have to deputise. This won’t be ideal but its also not awful. I’ll be honest, I’ve been impressed with Barco so far. Defensively he’s actually pretty good (better than a certain other Argentinian) and his playmaking and passing helps against low blocks. He’s also quite a fighter and physical player for someone so small, and can retain possession well, so I’d not be against him getting some PL starts - though of course, no one can replace Moises Caicedo.
For me the defensive problems we’ve had so far are as much about us learning a new system and structure, as much as anything. Robert Sanchez was to blame for the goals against Fulham, and he’s now gone on loan to Como and been replaced by Emi Martinez. Against Brighton, neither Reece James or Moises Caicedo started and Malo Gusto was in midfield. A pivot of Reece James and Moises Caicedo hasn’t started together this season yet, and the results have shown its effective. Reece is fit - since he’s started playing in midfield one game a week he’s barely been injured - and hopefully Caicedo is back fully fit soon.
In terms of the arguments for Reece James as “not a midfielder”, I think they’re nonsense. In several midfield metrics last season he was the same as or close to Enzo Fernandez, and in some cases better. Enzo was only better in the attacking metrics and creative metrics, which make sense as he’s a more attacking player than Reece. I think Reece was going to start in midfield a fair bit even if Camara had been signed. Reece is an exceptional footballer and I think he’s been good in the games I’ve seen him in so far this year. His long range passing is exceptional, he’s good defensively, hard to shake off the ball and covers ground. He’s not a RB anymore, certainly not in a wing back system, his body simply can’t do that anymore. To me he’s as much a midfielder now as anything else, though I also think he’d be an excellent RCB.
I think we have just enough in midfield to get us to January. I’d also add Reggie Watson and potentially Mahdi Nicole-Jazuli to the squad. Both impressed in pre-season and are certainly good enough to get minutes in the cup games, even to start depending on opposition.
And as I said earlier, given how much they wanted a midfielder this window, and the money we have available, I’m sure we’ll go into the market in January, as tough as that will be. I’d also add that given how much direct or indirect business we’ve done with Crystal Palace this season we’d be in a good position next summer to go for Adam Wharton. If we get Alex Scott in January and Wharton next summer, we’ll have signed our two top midfield targets.
If we’d signed one of those two now, or Camara, I do think 2nd place was possible, but I’ve never felt we could actually win the league this season. My prediction all along has been 3rd or comfortable 4th, and I stand by that. I don’t see Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs or Aston Villa as stronger squads than us or having better managers than us. Three of them have Champions League football too. Indeed I’d say we have a stronger midfield than Liverpool, and Man Utd for sure. Man City have a strong squad and will likely finish above us, but I’m still skeptical of what happens when they hit a bad patch under Enzo Maresca. Enzo Fernandez is a toxic player too, and they’ll find that out in the course of time.
Bottom line, I think if you look at our squad last season and our squad now, I think we’re a lot stronger now - with less games to play this season.
Chelsea Squad 25/26:
GK: Sanchez, Jorgensen, Slolnina
DEF: James, Gusto, Tosin, Colwill, Fofana, Badiashile, Chalobah, Sarr, Acheampong, Cucurella, Hato
MID: Caicedo, Fernandez, Lavia, Essugo, Santos
ATT: Palmer, Estevao, Neto, Gittens, Garnacho
ST: Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Marc Guiu
Chelsea Squad 26/27:
GK: Martinez, Penders, Sharman-Lowe
DEF: Palestra, Gusto, Colwill, Lacroix, Fofana, Acheampong, Anselmino, Hato, Chavarria
MID: Caicedo, James, Lavia, Barco, Henderson, Watson, Nicole-Jazuli
ATT: Palmer, Rogers, Estevao, Quenda, Neto, Gittens
ST: Joao Pedro, Danny Welbeck, Emanuel Emegha
To me, our current squad is much better than the one we had last season. We can add to this the fact that Cole Palmer, Estevao Willian, Joao Pedro and Levi Colwill have all had full summers off to rest and recharge - and we’ve seen the positive impact of this on Palmer and Joao Pedro already.
On top of this, as we all know we will largely be playing one game a week this season, and in my view, will add a top midfielder in January. Finally of course, we have a truly elite manager, the best we’ve had since Thomas Tuchel by a country mile, and that will make a difference too.
Overall, I think we’ll get top 4 comfortably with between 70-75 points, and if we do really well and add a midfielder in January, we could even finish 3rd. The goal this season for me is to reestablish us as a Champions League team, and hopefully win a domestic trophy, and for me, we can absolutely do that. Then we can reinforce again next summer and kick on to challenge for the league.
Despite the frustration of deadline day, I think Chelsea are undoubtedly heading in the right direction again. Now we need to keep that momentum going.
The Score