As the headline-grabbing, perfectly hash-tagged, music video accompanied signings of John Stones and Paul Pogba reverberate around British football, the Premier League seems to have been julienne’d into a dizzying haze of florescent red and sky blue. The Manchester clubs are dominating the sensations, both of them elbowing their way into title favouritism. This is the nature of these few weeks before the season begins; transfers whirr, sending the already slavering public into an even more delirious state of anticipation.
Meanwhile, Chelsea – a club with comparable wealth to the Manchester clubs and an equal appetite for the marquee gesture – have been relatively quiet this summer. I must strain the emphasis of the word “relatively”; they have spent over £60 million, on Michy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante, but these additions appear almost dowdy compared to the borderline hysteria of #POGBACK. A young attacking prospect, and a proven defensive midfielder; these are sensible additions. For clubs outside the moneyed elite – and Arsenal – spending £60 million in one transfer period would consist of a window well spent. But Chelsea and Antonio Conte, diligent as they have been so far, still have work to do.
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Namely, the Chelsea back line must be reinforced, and quick. It was Mourinho, strutting around as the manager of the Blues, that first poked at Everton’s resolve regarding Stones last season. The £45 million bid they made in January was more than just the coy tyre-kicking of Mourinho and his then-sugar daddy Roman Abramovich; Chelsea’s defensive line needed a revamp then, and still needs one now.
John Terry and Gary Cahill are two stolid defenders, but there is a startling lack of pace in that area of the pitch when they play together. Terry was was the verge of leaving the club before a one-year contract extension was offered, and this may have been a decision forced by pure desperation; right now, Terry, Cahill, Kurt Zouma and Branislav Ivanovic are Chelsea’s only senior centre backs with top level experience at the club. Ivanovic is more usually played at full back, and Zouma is nursing a long-term injury, meaning the Blues are one John Terry calf strain away from having to field John Obi Mikel in the centre of defence. Papy Djilobodji was sold to Sunderland, and Nathan Ake and Abdul Rahman Baba were loaned to Bournemouth and Schalke respectively, further reducing depth at the defensive positions. We all know that Cesar Azpilicueta is an excellent utility defender, but even he cannot straddle the gaping holes in this back line.
So, clearly their work in the transfer period isn’t done, and Conte has been busy looking to address these issues. The club have put in at least one bid, in the region of €45 million, for Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, a Senegalese centre back who possesses the athleticism and passing ability to cover for any potential partner’s shortcomings. As far as the full backs go, two would be nice, but at the very least another left back is needed. Ricardo Rodriguez, currently at Wolfsburg, would be absolutely ideal. No bids, though, have been submitted as yet.
Grand statements like breaking the transfer record for Pogba, or making John Stones the second-most expensive defender ever are all well and good. But thorough squad maintenance is just as important, and Conte is nothing if not thorough. The Manchester clubs have both spent nearly £200 million each, and by the time the window snaps shut, Chelsea might have spent more than half that sum.
West Ham, Chelsea’s opening day opponents, are assembling a quite staggering array of attacking options, with the exquisite Dimitri Payet at the heart of all of them. If the Blues defence is crumbly, West Ham will relish testing its fortitude, and they will do so this Monday. Chelsea have recruited well in recent off-seasons – the business done two seasons ago, when Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Felipe Luis were all secured very early in the window comes to mind – but if these defensive reinforcements can be secured, with time to spare, the 2016/17 transfer period will be remembered as fondly.
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