Chelsea FC Continues Transfer Tradition With Anthony Gordon And Wesley’s Fofana

Chelsea FC boss Thomas Tuchel has been expressing his concerns about transfers since last season.

The German was worried the sale of the club was hindering the Blues from laying the groundwork for a successful transfer window.

“Our hands are tied,” he complained at the time, “we can still have talks inside the building but we cannot act. The situation is not ideal.”

Fresh hope things could be remedied came with the completion of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s $2.9 billion acquisition at the end of May, but, as Tuchel had warned, the short lead-in time has begun to prove problematic.

One of the new board’s first orders of business was to dispense with sporting director Marina Granovskaia, the Russian-Canadian executive who became one of the few constants at a club where players and managers rarely last long.

In her place stepped Boehly himself acting as interim sporting director for this transfer window at least.

Granovskaia has “remain[ed] available to Boehly and the Club for the duration of the current transfer window, to the extent required to support the transition,” but reports have suggested this input was limited.

Despite a newbie to the world of soccer taking the reigns, the initial signs were that the input of such a senior figure was a deft move. The American was specifically credited as playing a crucial role in convincing England star Raheem Sterling to join the club from champions Manchester City.

The subsequent arrival of Senegal international Kalidou Koulibaly, considered one of the best defenders in world soccer, shortly afterward only added to this sense that, regardless of the sport, Boehly was a man who could get business done.

But then Chelsea’s summer transfer dealings stalled.

A move for Leeds United midfielder Raphinha was all but sealed when Barcelona intervened at the eleventh hour to hijack the deal, then deals for Nathan Ake and Jules Kounde both collapsed, with the latter also moving to the Catalans.

The club watched targets Matthijs de Ligt join Bayern Munich and Ousmane Dembele sign a new contract.

A deal for Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella was secured, but at a cost of $70 million only after Manchester City had walked away from negotiations.

It was suggested the high price paid for a player, ostensibly acquired to deepen the squad given Marcos Alonso’s anticipated departure to Barcelona, smacked of desperation.

Given Anthony Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner, had all left there were also concerns Chelsea was light in the fundamental departments of center half and striker.

As the time in the transfer window ebbed away, it all added to the sense the West Londoners have a worse squad than when it opened.

A 3-0 drubbing at Leeds United in game week three of the Premier League season has done little to shake this, although Tuchel was quick to stress there would be no panic buys.

“The transfer period is still open and it gets later and later and we need to focus on what we have and what we can do,” the coach said after the defeat.

Give youth a chance

It’s the early days of the Boehly-Clearlake era, so it would be wrong to jump to too many conclusions, but the potential $360 million total transfer outlay, if targets Anthony Gordon and Wesley Fofana are completed as expected, is strikingly similar to the clubs approach in the past.

Just as has been the case under the previous ownership, despite having one of the best academies in England, established players from rival clubs have been signed at a great expense instead of trusting the players already there.

Chelsea fans will need little reminder that Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah were allowed to leave or that they spent over $100 million re-signing Lukaku.

The arrival of Anthony Gordon will likely hasten the exit of Callum Hudson-Odoi, a player once considered one of the most exciting in Europe never really given a fair crack of the whip.

At center-half, the longstanding complaints about not giving youth a chance are even more well-founded.

In recent years Fikayo Tomori and Marc Guéhi have both been deemed surplus to requirements and go on to earn international call-ups after excelling at AC Milan and Crystal Palace.

Instead, Chelsea has a 31 and 37-year-old in its first-choice backline, something the arrival of Fofana is meant to fix. But it prompts the question why has the club not tried to develop at least one of the two quality youngsters it had on its books.

Fans can at least take comfort in seeing another youngster who impressed on loan last season, Conor Gallagher, being given a chance to prove himself this year, but know the 22-year-old is very much the exception to the rule.

As the American owners get their feet under the table at Chelsea and a full-time sporting director is hired, the hope is this might change.