The transfer window is (pretty much) closed, and Chelsea can take a look back at their summer and see how they did.
Various writers – including Ben Jacobs and Nizaar Kinsella of the BBC – have taken this chance to look at the window as a whole and consider the numbers involved.
With some asterisks over future arrivals, loan fees and obligations to buy, they come to roughly the same conclusions. Following this morning’s announcement that Angelo Gabriel has been sold to Saudi Arabia, the club look to have brought in around £208m worth of players and sold £189m.
A late deal for David Datro Fofana, Cesare Casadei, Ben Chilwell or one of the other outcasts on the books could yet put us into the positive. This is all part of the “plan,” as Kinsella explains:
“That plan is to sign young players who haven’t maximised their value and either wait for them to develop into first team players or be ruthless in flipping them for a quick profit if need be. The mere association with Chelsea is believed by many within the club to raise the value of players while they also have Strasbourg, where Angelo spent last season, as a place to send players on loan before they are sold.”
Caution over summer arrivals
Of course, numbers only tell one side of the story. The real question is whether this squad has got stronger. This is a debate which will need the rest of this season to answer (and even then, plenty of people will disagree).
Pedro Neto is a good player, but has had injury problems. But he might be the only arrival considered a first team starter already. Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury Hall, Filip Jorgensen, Renato Veiga, Tosin Adarabioyo, Jadon Sancho… as it stands, none of them are getting in Enzo Maresca’s first XI.
We also didn’t sign a top goalkeeper or a top striker. So for as much back patting as there is over breaking even this summer – did we actually improve the squad?