One-third of the way through the Premier League season, Chelsea are in fourth place. That’s not where they were meant to be sitting in December, having offloaded Eden Hazard to Real Madrid, appointing an untested new manager and, perhaps most importantly, suffering a two-window transfer ban.
Chelsea’s transfer ban has been lifted, and that could be a curse
Chelsea have done surprisingly well by leaning on young players they developed. Now that they can spend money again, will they jeopardize the progress they’ve made for immediate help?
Unable to reinforce from without, Chelsea instead turned to their kids. And to general surprise, that plan worked: Tammy Abraham established himself as a first-choice starter at centre forward, and the other academy players did enough to keep the club in comfortable position in the race for the top four. Instead of being a punishment, the transfer ban seemingly sparked a squad regeneration for the Blues.
Now suddenly, Chelsea are in an odd place: On Dec. 6, the club won its almost-cursory appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the ban, and as a result it’s no longer in force (the club statement in response to this success was delightfully peevish) puts the club in an odd place. With the proceeds of the Hazard sale still unspent, the Blues are sitting on a staggering amount of cash, even for one of the world’s richest teams.
While Chelsea are six points clear of fifth, they aren’t guaranteed to sustain their early momentum. A shock home loss against West Ham has narrowed that gap, and although Chelsea’s most credible competition for fourth have thus far spent most of their time hitting their own genitals with metaphorical sledgehammers, it’s possible that Tottenham or Manchester United could find ways to around their seasons and march back up the table.
Chelsea have holes in the current squad too. Left-back is a problem — neither Marcos Alonso nor Emerson have been convincing this season, and Frank Lampard’s response has been to shunt club captain Cesar Azpilicueta over to his ‘wrong’ flank to mitigate the issue. With Antonio Rüdiger out because injury, centre back also needs help, and the Blues are also light in midfield. Buying in January is always dangerous, but it’s not out of the question that they could make the team better with some clever moves.
However, a spending spree might not work either. Many of Chelsea’s players have been playing together since they were children, and they may not react well to the club returning to form and throwing money at established internationals. The Blues have used cash to great effect in the past, but they’ve also turned good money into, for instance, Álvaro Morata. A bad January signing would be worse than no signing at all, especially in a squad this close-knit.
This is a situation every club faces, of course. But Chelsea emerged from a choice-free summer with clarity and focus, so it’ll be interesting to see how they navigate the winter now that they can go in whatever direction they want. While they were under sanction, Chelsea only had one way forward. The news of overturned sanctions brings opportunity, but some of that is the opportunity to make calamitous errors.
Given the club’s recent record in the transfer market, that ought to scare everyone involved.
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