Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, Davide Zappacosta and Alvaro Morata. All names that Chelsea fans prefer not to speak of.
Quite sad how these signings turned out and we only have one man to point the finger at, Antonio Conte. The January transfer window has passed but I cannot help but wonder if these forgotten soldiers had a part to play in Chelsea’s lack of business this winter.
Considering Antonio Conte’s success in his first season at Chelsea, he was given freedom to bring in players he would like for his second season. Though he was unable to get some of his first choices, he still made decisions on who to bring that summer. He spent a total of £187 million.
That’s quite a lot of money spent on players that haven’t survived into Thomas Tuchel’s reign.
Antonio Rudiger is the only current Chelsea player who came from the Antonio Conte era, That is quite scary if you ask me. I can only imagine that the board probably saw this misuse of transfers and decided to keep safe without them this time around. Half a year of success was rewarded with a £97 million striker for Thomas Tuchel. So far, not so good.
With the Sky Italia interview coupled with his recent form, Romelu Lukaku has not yet proven to be a signing for the history books. There’s barely a positive light to put on many signings from the Conte era, so it is imperative that Chelsea do not make the same mistakes as before.
Originally I was confused by the lack of transfer business. Thomas Tuchel had repeatedly stressed that his players were tired and that he has no wingbacks available. With Ben Chilwell out for the rest of the season and Marcos Alonso seeing shadows of his best days, you’d think the immediate solution is to buy a new left-back. Sadly that was not the case this time around.
I can remember Maurizio Sarri’s tenure at Chelsea. Short and effective. He was allowed to bring in striker Gonzalo Higuain in January, due to the lack of output from Alvaro Morata who consequently made a loan move to Atletico Madrid. A simple solution to solve a goal-scoring issue. However, it didn’t quite solve the issue. Higuain only managed five goals in 18 appearances for the Blues.
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I guess Conte’s impact on the Chelsea board’s trust has come back to haunt us. Whilst Tuchel has bought us the biggest prize in European pedigree, he will need to win over the board’s trust, and most importantly, Marina Granovskaia.
Slow and steady process. Looking forward to finding out whether the Blues will learn from their past mistake or let it hinder Tuchel’s dream team.
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