Chelsea Transfer Window Analysis
There is a saying in the world of football, every team must freshen up their squad in the transfer window of they end up falling behind in the pecking order. Chelsea certainly have been guilty of that in this transfer window as the Premier League Champions haven’t bought well enough while most of their rivals did strengthen in those areas which have troubled them a lot. Chelsea though have one of the best managers in the world and a wily character in Jose Mourinho, who would be knowing how to kick-start their season after collecting just four points from as many matches. We look at the transfer activity of the Champions thus far and we focus on the major signings made by the club.
Players in:
Radamel Falcao, Asmir Begovic, Abdul Baba Rahman, Pedro, Papy Djilobodji
Players out:
Petr Cech, Filipe Luis, Mohamed Salah, Juan Cuadrado
Chelsea were pretty quick in snapping up the services of Falcao and Begovic as they had to deal with the departures of Chelsea legends Petr Cech and Didier Drogba but they didn’t really invest a lot in an ageing squad which may be catching up with them now.
They let go of their other left-back, Filipe Luis after just one season at the club and even big money signing Juan Cuadrado was allowed to join Serie A Champions Juventus on a loan deal after a failure to perform at Stamford Bridge.
The club needed to bring in some fresh faces and that only happened recently with the signing of Pedro, who has been exceptional for the club so far. Similarly, they got in Rahman from the Bundesliga as cover for their regular left-back Cesar Azpilicueta. The surprise signing for the club so far has to be of Nantes defender Papy Djilobodji, who just joined the club.
The Senegalese defender certainly was one of the best players for the club in Ligue 1 but is he good enough to star for Chelsea at an extremely crucial time for the club? The central defenders have struggled so far this season and throwing in a player who has never played in the Premier League can be seen as a tad desperate by the club.
The onus for creativity rested on the shoulder of Eden Hazard last season but even he has not been able to help Chelsea out of their slow start. Pedro does seem to be a great signing for the club but they haven’t addressed an ageing defence and a midfield which seems to be caught out a lot these days.
The fact that they let go of two creative players in Cuadrado and Salah also shows that not everyone can perform well at Chelsea, the transfer window should have seen Chelsea sign a few players for their midfield and defence but all they have done is to replace the players who weren’t doing much for the team either way.
Chelsea might be lucky to stay in the Premier League race till the next transfer window but based on their performances so far, they would need to bring in quite a few players to get back to their all-conquering ways.