Chelsea have already lost three games this season, and Thomas Tuchel’s mood couldn’t be clearer after yesterday’s latest setback against Dinamo Zagreb.
“Clearly we are not there, where we should be and where we can be. At the moment, everything is missing,” Tuchel said after last night’s game, as quoted by BBC Sport, but how can this be after such a huge summer of investment in the transfer market?
The unfortunate answer for Chelsea is that, for all the money spent this summer, their transfers appear to have been poorly thought out, while decisions in other recent transfer windows have also turned out to be quite chaotic.
Looking at this summer, it is clear that a replacement for Romelu Lukaku would be needed almost immediately, and yet the club’s only solution to that glaring problem was the arrival of 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on Deadline Day. Such was Chelsea’s desperation, that they rushed him into Tuchel’s starting line-up last night despite looking terrible and still playing in a protective mask after the jaw injury, not to mention the emotional trauma, of the recent assault that took place in his house since he was assaulted in Barcelona.
Elsewhere in the squad, sanctions on Roman Abramovich meant that Chelsea were unable to offer Antonio Rudiger a new contract, allowing him to leave for Real Madrid for free. Andreas Christensen was also a free agent, and while it was perhaps a minor loss, he left the Blues far short of options at the back. Wesley Fofana looks like a genuinely exciting purchase, and easily the club’s best signing this summer, but he came in late, without having the pre-season he could have done with Tuchel. Kalidou Koulibaly, meanwhile, doesn’t look convincing, and that’s no wonder: he is, after all, a 31-year-old who has spent most of his career in Serie A and who now seems past his peak while he is asked. to move to a much faster and more competitive league.
Of course, it’s clear that Koulibaly, and perhaps even Fofana, were not Chelsea’s first choice of defender. CaughtOffside understands that the Blues wanted Jules Kounde first, and they also had talks about Nathan Ake, while Presnel Kimpembe was another considered option; For one reason or another, these deals weren’t possible, and Koulibaly was, at best, Plan D for the West London giants.
Similarly, we saw Denis Zakaria targeted literally in the final hours of the transfer window despite previously not being on Chelsea’s agenda. Ajax’s Edson Alvarez was the club’s preferred target and will be back on their agenda in January, according to the Evening Standard, so once again we’ve seen the club rush in for a player they didn’t particularly want, and they didn’t does. He won’t look much better than they already have in that position.
It is true that the new owner, Todd Boehly, inherited a difficult situation after buying Chelsea from Abramovich: the previous owner, Marina Granovskaia, also left Stamford Bridge, and a new sporting director has not yet been appointed, which leaves Boehly to do much of the club’s work. in the transfer market; While money is clearly not a major issue, Granovskaia’s past experience in terms of spotting talent and negotiating skills seems to be.
That said, many of these problems in the transfer market also predate Boehly, and this is where Tuchel may have to take some of the blame for failing to get the best out of the team he has been given. Last summer’s big-money move for Romelu Lukaku was a disaster, especially when combined with the sale of Tammy Abraham, who has been reborn in Rome to look like precisely the No. 9 this team so badly needs. He too could be forgiven for forgetting all about the Saul Niguez loan move, such was his complete lack of impact.
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Of course, Lukaku did himself no favors with that infamous Sky Italia interview, but he is clearly a world-class striker whose skills were overlooked by his manager at Chelsea. Having shone as part of the forward two at Inter Milan, displaying some of the best form of his career, he was too isolated at Chelsea, who have never really been an attacking force under the current head coach. the.
Tuchel made Chelsea much more organized and disciplined after taking over from Frank Lampard in January 2021, leading him to a shock victory in the Champions League final in his first few months in charge. However, with that win expectations have been raised, and the quality of the team’s attacking play is simply not there compared to Liverpool and Manchester City.
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Will Man Utd and Chelsea continue to monitor the Frenkie de Jong situation after both pushed to sign him this summer?
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Lukaku is just one of many examples – Timo Werner also never showed what he’s truly capable of in a Chelsea shirt, Kai Havertz is an elite talent who has regressed, so is Christian Pulisic – and the quality and vision of Hakim Ziyech have not. t has been made full use of. Raheem Sterling could end up being a good signing, but at the moment he doesn’t fit into this very different style of play than he was used to at Manchester City.
According to the Telegraph, Boehly sees Tuchel as one of Chelsea’s greatest assets, but one wonders if he could start rethinking that anytime soon. Yes, he needs a sporting director to help him with transfers, but after so much investment he, too, could expect more from Tuchel than a 1-0 loss to Dinamo Zagreb with little response afterwards.
