It looked for so long like Chelsea were in the perfect position this summer.They started the transfer window as champions, but more importantly, they knew exactly what they had to do in order to strengthen their squad. They knew that Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic could have been upgraded upon, and they knew that Victor Moses wasn’t the perfect first-choice right-back. And so straight off the bat they had the chance to inject a title-winning squad with fresh impetus and extra quality – something that would have seen them look like the first team since Manchester United under Alex Ferguson to retain the title.But their performance in the transfer market didn’t really live up to expectations. Instead of upgrading the squad, Chelsea simply replaced like-for-like players, ending up starting the season amid suggestions that their squad simply wasn’t big enough to cope with the demands of a whole season at the top, especially not when you add Champions League football, something that didn’t bother the Blues last season.But although Antonio Conte dealt with those issues by showing off his coaching prowess to keep the wheels on the Chelsea wagon – something that didn’t happen at the start of Jose Mourinho’s final season in charge at Stamford Bridge – things started to fall apart in the transfer market.Despite reported interest in Romelu Lukaku, Manchester United swooped in at pace to steal the Belgian forward away and bring him to Old Trafford. And since then, it’s looked like the same story repeated more than once, as top six rivals beat Conte’s side to the punch.It’s been reported, with only a few hours to go before the deadline, that Fernando Llorente looks close to joining Tottenham Hotspur over Chelsea. And whilst that may not represent the worst transfer defeat in history – Llorente would hardly be first choice at the Bridge, nor would he provide anything different to Morata apart from slightly better aerial prowess – it does show that Chelsea aren’t as dominant off the pitch as they were on it last season. Llorente would be a quality signing in the sense that Conte knows and trusts him, and if Diego Costa is leaving for Atletico Madrid – or just sitting in his underwear in Brazil – then another striker in the ranks is no bad thing.But even if you do consider Llorente to Spurs rumours a kick in the teeth for Chelsea, the news that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has indeed signed for Liverpool is much worse.
The reason it looks bad for Chelsea isn’t so much that Chamberlain is a fabulous player they’re missing out on. It’s more that the rumours were genuinely convincing that he’d sign for the west London club over a move far away from the city he’s called home since his move from Southampton to Arsenal back in 2011. And it seemed as though Chelsea themselves were convinced that the deal was going to happen.
Perhaps, as may be the case with Llorente too, Chamberlain was simply promised a better role in the squad at Liverpool than he was at Chelsea. Perhaps Llorente saw himself as second choice to Harry Kane at Spurs with the possibility of getting onto the pitch more often as a sort of Pochettino plan B, whereas at Chelsea, he’d be stuck behind Morata and Michy Batshuayi.
It could be a similar story with Chamberlain, who may have been promised the central midfield role he wanted at Liverpool, whereas Chelsea may have wanted to use him more as a wing-back.
Neither of these things represents as big a transfer snub as they might have seemed at first glance. But they should still be worrying.
If Chelsea want players in before the deadline, both to bolster the thin squad and to strengthen a winning side, they’ve left it very late. Too late, in fact, if they’re going to start losing out to other clubs.
It looked as though Chelsea were in a commanding position this summer, to strengthen a side who swept away all before them last season. Most of that team will still take to the starting XI most weeks this year, too, of course. But it’s clear that Conte’s side aren’t as strong after their summer business as they could have been.
And even though it’s certainly not yet a crisis, it’s starting to look like a missed opportunity.
