It was yet another exceedingly busy summer for BlueCo, with dozens of permanent and temporary transfers arranged, completed, and occasionally canceled at the very last minute. And we helped set a couple new records as well, with Morgan Rogers becoming our record signing at £117m and Enzo Fernández becoming the most expensive British transfer (again) at £125m.
The window did end on a slightly sour note when AS Monaco pulled out of the Lamine Camara transfer, literally with just minutes left on the clock
ahead of the 11pm (BST) deadline. Chelsea had tried for Camara earlier but were knocked back. However, when Folarin Balogun’s transfer to Everton collapsed, Monaco suddenly were more willing to do business, as they desperately needed the money to balance the books. But then they switched up again by renegotiating the Balogun deal. Amusingly, that renegotiated deal would fall through as well, and by then, the deadline had passed. So for all their shenanigans, Monaco were left with none of the necessary transfer income that they were counting on. Karma, innit.
Of course, not getting Camara — or Manu Koné, or Adam Scott, or Adam Wharton — to help fill the void left by Enzo’s departure could come back to bite us hard. But beyond that, we addressed just about every position in one way or another: we’ve got new options at goalkeeper, left back, right back, center back, central midfield, attacking midfield, winger, striker. (And a new manager as well of course.)
That’s a lot of new and often a lot of new takes a lot of time to settle and become cohesive. Hopefully that’s another area where having a few more veteran players around could help. The paradigm shift in our approach to transfers is credited to the new manager, who now has to deliver.
As far as reducing the bloat and clearing out the deadwood, we’ve done alright. Perhaps more than alright, even. In fact, we ended the window with a rare net positive balance, earning about £400m in sales against £340m in purchases. Some key players left: Marc Cucurella, Trevoh Chalobah, and Enzo of course were among the minutes leaders last season (and for several seasons prior in the cases of Enzo and Cucu). But some of the fees we were able to collect for fringe players or wantaways was truly impressive (even if we credit some of that to market inflation).
So, how do you rate the business of the summer?
INCOMING
Marco Palestra, 21 — £43m from Atalanta
Emmanuel Emegha, 23 — £22m from RC Strasbourg (agreed early on during last season)
Geovany Quenda, 19 — £40m from Sporting CP (agreed last summer)
Morgan Rogers, 24 — £117m from Aston Villa
Maxence Lacroix, 26 — £52m from Crystal Palace
Danny Welbeck, 35 — £5m from Brighton & Hove Albion
Valentín Barco, 22 — £34 from RC Strasbourg (agreed back in the spring)
Jordan Henderson, 36 — $FREE from Brentford
Pep Chavarría, 28 — €19m from Rayo Vallecano
Dastan Satpayev, 18 — €4m from FC Kairat (agreed some 18 months ago)
Emiliano Martínez, 34 — £7.5m from Aston Villa
Additionally, teenagers Harrison Bettoni and Alfie Osborne joined the Chelsea U21s, from Wigan Athletic and Hearts, respectively.
And we agreed the future transfer of highly rated Honest Ahanor, 18, who will join next summer from Atalanta for £40m. In the meantime, he’s gone on loan to Crystal Palace.
OUTGOING
Marc Cucurella, 28 — £47.5m to Real Madrid
Tyrique George, 20 — £18m to Everton
Andrey Santos, 22 — £48m to Manchester United
Trevoh Chalobah, 27 — €30m to Como 1907
Liam Delap, 23 — £45m to Nottingham Forest
Nicolas Jackson, 25 — £47.5m to Aston Villa
David Datro Fofana, 23 — €2.5m to Servette
Tosin Adarabioyo, 28 — £7m to Tottenham Hotspur
Enzo Fernández, 25 — £125m to Manchester City
Marc Guiu, 20 — €17m to RB Leipzig
Academy youngster Jimmy-Jay Morgan commanded a £4m transfer fee for his permanent move to West Brom, while the transfers of Omari Kellyman and Deivid Washington to sister-club RC Strasbourg were recorded as €6m and €8m line items, respectively.
Other Academy players leaving for good (and for either free or training compensation) include James Hillson, Brodi Hughes, Richard Olise, Sam Rak-Sakyi (who did have four senior appearances to his name as well), Frankie Runham, Jimi Tauriainen, Joseph Wheeler-Henry, Christopher Atherton, and Jeremiah Berkeley-Agyepong.
LOAN ARMY
The Loan Army is still alive and well, and this season there are quite a few big names in it as well. Most deals for the senior players have a buy-options attached as well.
Alejandro Garnacho (to Aston Villa)
Filip Jörgensen (to RC Strasbourg)
Dastan Satpayev (to Burnley)
Benoît Badiashile (to Napoli for €4m loan fee))
Axel Disasi (to Crystal Palace)
Mamadou Sarr (to Real Sociedad)
Caleb Wiley (to Preston North End)
Dário Essugo (to RC Strasbourg)
Mykhailo Mudryk (to Tottenham Hotspur)
Robert Sánchez (to Como 1907)
Harrison Murray-Campbell (to KV Kortrijk)
Jesse Derry (to Sporting CP)
Kaiden Wilson (to Rochdale)
Max Merrick (to Hartlepool United)
Hudson Sands (to Dulwich Hamlet)
Ollie Harrison (to AFC Wimbledon)
Genesis Antwi (to RC Strasbourg)
Ishe Samuels-Smith (to Notts County)
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen (to Portsmouth)
Reggie Walsh (to Wigan Athletic)
Dujuan Richards (to AFC Wimbledon)
POLL
This is the same poll that’s in The Feed, because apparently that’s how we do polls in the new CMS. Wonderful.
Anyway, it’s the usual system of smiley faces. Are we not entertained?
