A Summary of Chelsea’s Transfer Window

The modern day transfer window is a strange animal. With the world wide connectivity of social media, not only are our desires for immediate news gratification constantly being fed but a greater amount of pure rumours and speculation is now rife, even to the extreme of down right inaccuracies being discussed.

This phenomena seems even more exaggerated at the leading clubs. Chelsea FC and its followers are no exception. Media outlets churn out a full array of inaccurate transfer stories driven by anything from the full knowledge of who is doing what, to the  speculation fed by a faint whisper.

We can all speculate and discuss who the club “were interested in” or “are linked with”, never mind the sometimes laughable “rejected a move to Chelsea”.

So let’s try to concentrate on the facts. Since the start of January, the club have parted company with 10 first team squad members (11 if you include the exiled Diego Costa), but have only purchased 6 new players as replacements.

This numerical difference has led to an easily fed media frenzy of doom and gloom at the club, culminating in stories that the champions creator Antonio Conte would leave / be forced out / be sacked in any combination of within a few days / by Christmas / at the end of the season (circle appropriate options as per which media outlet you follow). Social media went into meltdown with some even demanding that Roman Abramovich should sell up and leave the club. However, dive a little further into this apparent oversight by the club and you will see the incoming 6 can and will fill bigger shoes than the departing 11.

Last season Chelsea played 47 competitive matches across 3 competitions. This season the club surely have been preparing to play in around 60 matches across 4 competitions. That in itself is an increase of 143 first team starts. Then there is the shortfall of the departed players to cover. All 11 started a total of 124 matches last season. That makes a grand total of 267 starts needing to be fulfilled by the new additions.

On the face of it that now seems a lot less scary – don’t be surprised if the 5 outfield players get an average of 50 starts each. Then you can increase the number of starts that some of last season’s players will be able to achieve if they remain relatively injury free.

But let’s break it down further into departments. Goalkeepers. The club sold Asmir Begovic (8 starts) and replaced him with the competent Willy Caballero, and made £10milliion profit in transfers at the same time. Chelsea’s 3 keepers will have no difficulty in fulfilling the full fixture list this season and, provided Courtois remains injury and suspension free, this department is as strong as last season.

Defenders. The loss of Ivanovic (8 starts), John Terry (10 starts), Ake (4 starts) and Zouma (5 starts) can comfortably be covered by Antonio Rudiger, who has already shown what a strong and athletic defender he can be. Then there is further cover of the back 3 in the form of Andreas Christensen. He is the latest first team squad member to be given experience and assuredness from the Loan system. I can only see a much stronger competition for starting places in our defence and therefore an improvement on last season.

Midfield. Oscar (6 starts), Matic (34 starts), Nathaniel Chalobah (5 starts), Loftus-Cheek (4 starts) and Aina (2 starts) seems like a large hole in the squad. The mountain that is Tiemoue Bakayoko, the dependable Danny Drinkwater and the exciting prospect of Davide Zappacosta running up and down the right flank will not only fill that hole, but create a more flowing midfield unit that can move the ball forward quicker and more accurately. If you then add Kenedy to the list, a player we all believed was to never wear a Chelsea shirt again thanks to his unwelcome antics away on pre season, there are more options for Conte to dwell on as well.

Attack. Costa (38 starts) and Solanke (0 starts) have been replaced only by the potentially world class Alvaro Morata. Whilst this should be an upgrade on the want away Costa, this could be the area of concern. Any lengthy spell away from selection for Morata will leave us only with the still very green looking Michy Batchuyai. If this does happen, expect to see a quick recall for Tammy Abraham or a 3-5-2 formation featuring Hazard and Pedro / Willian playing as “false number 9s”.

All in all this has the potential to become another accomplished transfer summer for Chelsea. Most people believed the final day purchases of Luiz and Alonso were just panic buys last summer. Look how well that ended.

Despite all 6 new arrivals not being Conte’s first 6 names on his wish list, they are all very capable of carrying Chelsea to challenging positions in all 4 competitions.

Twitter: @ClitheroeBlue