Once again, Chelsea has been one of the most active clubs on the summer transfer market. It’s become a very familiar trend to watch, as transfer window after transfer window, the Blues keep digging deep into their pockets to mould and shape their sizable squad.
Last season, head coach Enzo Maresca was essentially working with two separate squads at their Cobham training facilities, with big names like Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell being isolated from the main core of players. However, even that excess hasn’t stopped a steady stream of new players heading into Stamford Bridge.
At times, it feels like Chelsea has gone for a scattergun approach of buying up talent left, right and centre. The typical purchases are young, skilful players with a huge upside for potential resale down the line while hoping that some make the grade for the first team squad. There’s nothing wrong with targeting top talent, but can true harmony on the pitch be achieved with another influx of squad members?
What the bookies say
Regardless of the size and shape of the current Chelsea squad, the Blues have some backing at the bookmakers. The odds suggest they are firmly expected to be in the mix for a top four finish in the 2025/26 Premier League, even though they have been pegged with a distant outside chance of the title, and are well behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City.
There is a good selection of markets at the newest sportsbooks on AskGamblers, where Chelsea’s name will pop up. New sportsbooks may not have the established branding of major operators, but these licensed platforms all carry markets such as the Premier League outright winner, top goalscorer, top four finish and relegation, along with team specials such as the number of trophies Chelsea will win and player transfer markets.
Why such a big squad?
Dario Essugo, Kendry Paez, Jamie Gittens, Mike Penders, Estevao Willian, Mamadou Sarr, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap were the first new faces to arrive at Stamford Bridge this summer. Of them, the exciting Estevao Willian, who is regarded as being the best Brazilian since Neymar, is the marquee one. Thanks to their participation in this summer’s Club World Cup, the Blues received extra income, which has helped them in their recruitment drive, primarily focusing on the attacking areas.
Having a deep squad can help manage the workload in this modern era of football, where there is an overload of matches across different competitions. Last term, Chelsea used a much-changed squad for most of their Europa Conference League campaign, leaving players fresher for Premier League action.
The European silverware was a big bonus for the Blues as it got them into the Champions League. However, the main target at the start of the campaign was a top four finish to re-establish themselves on that front — another goal they achieved.
Having separate squads for different competitions sounds like a good plan to execute. It can allow the different squads to build tighter connections and give everyone some competitive action, but surely the players who were not making the regular Premier League matchday squad still carried a degree of disappointment.
Does size matter?
That leaves the question of whether Chelsea’s squad is just too big. Having a squad in excess of 30 players is naturally going to be difficult to manage in terms of keeping everyone happy. Friendships within smaller groups build trust and a willingness to play for each other, and that goes a long way in creating harmony within a football club.
In contrast, having a larger group of players means that it’s more likely that there will be cliques of like-minded players, rather than a collective harmony throughout the entire squad. So, how could this all play out for the Blues?
Creating harmony
Harmony is essential on the pitch, and it would seem Chelsea is going to have to work a lot harder than other potential top four challengers in the Premier League to achieve it. Many new faces through the door mean that it takes longer to build relationships, especially between players who speak different languages and are accustomed to different club cultures.
That’s why a settled squad that has been playing together for a long time, where only the odd signing comes in to strengthen it, can be more beneficial. At Chelsea, there seems to be a lot of constant change, and that can disrupt the building of harmony. So, what is harmony important for?
Communication
Harmony is understanding each other and having clear communication. This can be non-verbal communication, through body language, gestures like finger-pointing and even gaining such a deep level of understanding that a player instinctively knows that a teammate will be making a run at a certain time.
These unspoken cues are valuable and help when signalling to teammates what’s going to happen from a free kick or a corner. Everyone needs to be on the same page so there is no confusion, and mistakes are cut to an absolute minimum.
Harmony is also about respect and a willingness to fight for each other in a supportive environment. It also means trusting others enough to take risks and that everyone is aligned, so the tactics that the manager wants to execute are executed. With Chelsea, this feels like a grey area that will take a few settled seasons to nurture, but if new players arrive every transfer window, can they ever get there?
The new Chelsea way
Chelsea probably has a longer way to go to build real harmony in a starting 11 than reigning champions Liverpool or Arsenal, who have fairly well-settled teams. Enzo Maresca is the glue to getting the squad together to create the right environment.
The much-coveted team spirit is something special, and you can typically tell when it’s there by the collective body language of a team. Last season, sometimes it was there for the Blues, sometimes it wasn’t.
Is it the players or the manager to blame when it all doesn’t work? Players need to have the right mentality and must work to get along with and trust their teammates. However, the consistent messaging needs to come from the top, from Maresca and his coaching staff.
Roles must be created, the leadership on the pitch needs to be installed and bonding off the pitch also needs to be done, and there’s only one man in charge of that. The thing is that if Maresca can’t find that harmony early in the new season, then he will be on the chopping block and another new head coach would mean having to rebuild harmony all over again from scratch.
