Chelsea have had a far from ideal summer of transfer activity under the new ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital. Despite pulling off big signings of Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly, the general feeling around Stamford Bridge is that more reinforcements are needed and they’re needed very soon.
Chelsea lost two first-team centre-backs in Antonio Rudiger and Andres Christensen at the end of last season while club captain Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso are both angling for moves back to Spain with FC Barcelona.
The above makes multiple quality defensive signings a key area that Chelsea need to address in this transfer window and so far, they’ve gone about doing so in a messy way.
Discussions for Nathan Ake proceeded for long before Manchester City pulled out from Chelsea not matching their asking price. A 14-month transfer saga to bring in Jules Kounde ended bizarrely with Chelsea having agreed a fee but then ‘had doubts’ (per media reports) allowing FC Barcelona to swoop in and sign Kounde from under their nose.
They were very keen on De Ligt but the Dutchman fancied a move to Barcelona while they’ve held interest in Presnel Kimpembe who appears happy to remain at PSG.
With less than a week to go until their first Premier League fixture of the new season, Chelsea have jumped into life with news of interest in Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Josko Gvardiol and Denzel Dumfries filtering in.
We provide the latest transfer update on each player and some insight into how they might fit into Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea side.