12/17/2023 at 08:00 CET
Mauricio Pochettino’s men swarm through the middle zone and could need extra reinforcements to stay afloat. Last season they spent almost 330M.
The London club has spent around 1.1 billion euros since May 2002 as a result of its acquisition by Todd Boehly’s conglomerate – Clearlake Capital.
Chelsea are famous for their ability to make high-cost signings. Seven of the 50 most expensive transfers are his. Vlahovic, his next top target.
Chelsea is an unrecognizable team this season in the Premier League. Those of Mauricio Pochettino, coach of the Blues since last summer, swarm around the middle of the table, very far away not only from the Champions League positions, but even from any position with the option of playing in Europe next season. A striking panorama if one takes into account that since May 2022 it is estimated that those from London have spent more than 1.1 billion euros on signings.
Specifically in 28 new faces. But the machinery still does not work and its owners, the American conglomerate Todd Boehly – Clearlake Capital, could be willing to continue opening the investment tap to, in the next winter market, revolutionize the team and revive it.
Almost no Champions League options
For now, in Betfair football betting, confidence in the blues remains far away. Finishing in the top four has an implicit probability of just 7% and is 9th in these predictions. Ahead of Chelsea, the next eight teams in anticipation of finishing in the top four: City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa, Newcastle, Tottenham, United and Brighton. In terms of options, it seems almost a chimera that Pochettino’s team would do the right thing to get into those privileged positions… at least with the current squad.
Given that Chelsea invested around 330 million euros in signings last season, another gigantic investment to try to boost the project would not be unreasonable. It happens that before entering, one would have to let out. The rumor mill in the English press already leaves Spanish Cucurella among farewell options, including Disasi, Malo Gusto, Madueke, Chalobah, Maatsen and Broja.
Seven goodbye options that could be combined with a good handful of signings. Almost all, as usual, of some renown. This is what happens, for example, with the name Vlahovic. The Serbian striker from Juventus Turin was already on Chelsea’s agenda last summer, but his signing was not finally undertaken.
His departure from Italy would always be at a high price that could be around 100 million euros, a not exorbitant amount in the recent movements of the blues if one takes into account that they paid 133 million euros for the Ecuadorian Moisés Caicedo last summer or 121 by the Argentine Enzo Fernández just in January 2023.
A long history of waste
To understand the dimension of expenditure that Chelsea is capable of, of the 50 most expensive signings in the history of football, seven belong to those from Stamford Bridge, namely: Caicedo (133 million euros), Enzo Pérez (122) , Lukaku (115) Mudryk (100), Fofana (81), Kepa (80) and Havertz (77).
Also for the forward, the option of Palhinha, from Fulham, has been rumored, which would be somewhat cheaper in terms of spending, but equally high for a market, the winter market, which is not usually used to such high investments. These expenses are more for the summer and not for the month of January.
Along with the center forward position, the other two that would appear as priorities on Chelsea’s agenda would be goalkeeper and midfielder. In the first, because Robert Sánchez, the Blues’ Spanish goalkeeper, has recently been injured and they want to look for a guaranteed replacement. In the midfielder position, because we want to energize an area that could even suffer an important departure precisely to make some cash and not have everything be expenses.
It is worth remembering that Spain ‘benefited’ from Chelsea’s spending this season. The signing of Joao Felix, on loan from Atlético (the loan cost 11 million) was one of the star moves (although it ultimately did not go as expected) for the London team. With Pochettino at the helm and his knowledge of LaLiga ahead, it would not be ruled out that the coach would also want to cast his fishing rod in the Spanish championship next market, the one that is already curiously awaiting what type of investment Chelsea will make.
2023-12-17 07:07:54
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