Chelsea transfer chaos continues as failed Deadline Day deal speaks volumes

So let’s get this straight: You want a summary of Chelsea ’s transfer window business this summer. What are you trying to do - break the internet?

In a word, the comings and goings at Stamford Bridge since the end of last season can be encapsulated in one simple word: Chaos. New managers always want to build a team in their own image, and Enzo Maresca is no different - at the time of writing, he had spent around £220 million on 12 new players, with nine shipped out (including three free transfers) recouping £147 million.

But the real story behind another mad trolley dash at the Bridge is the players Chelsea didn’t sign - namely a world-class goalkeeper and a No.9 centre-forward - and the battalion of internationals Maresca deemed surplus to requirements, Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell principal among them.

To splurge £1.2 billion on new players in five transfer windows, flexing the your biceps in the market place like Popeye after two cans of spinach, is one thing. But to invest that kind of money without fixing the spine of the team just seems a bit, well… odd.

When Jose Mourinho built his original title-winning team at Chelsea 20 years ago, it was the spine of his side which was so impressive: Petr Cech in goal, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho at the back, Michael Essien as the gatekeeper in midfield, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba… you didn’t have to like them to accept they were awesome.

Of Maresca’s signings, of course there is much to admire in winger Pedro Neto at £54m, Joao Felix at £47m, midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall at £30m, defender Tosin Adarabioyo on a free from neighbours Fulham and left-back Renato Veiga at £12m. But with respect, new goalkeeper Filipe Jorgensen is no Cech, Tosin is no Carvalho and if Veiga is an upgrade on Marc Cucurella, who’s going to play in the Premier League every week and who gets the Carabao Cup against Barrow?

Of the players who have left, Conor Gallagher ’s £45m move to Atletico Madrid was a strange way to treat the club’s most consistent player last season. Chelsea since birth, sold abroad last week. The last-minute pursuit of Victor Osimhen to solve that No.9 vacancy, a position which has never been filled properly since pantomime villain Diego Costa was at large, begs the question: You’ve had all summer to make it happen, why leave it until the last hours of the window?

And as for the late haggling over Jadon Sancho, a player Maresca knows well from their time at Manchester City, what the actual? In a squad already containing Cole Palmer, Neto, Felix, Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, Christopher Nkunku, promising youngster Tyrique George (who did well coming off the bench against Servette for his debut in midweek) - where is he supposed to get a game?

Put together the sum of Chelsea’s parts and you have a squad bursting with talent - but not in every position. And the real litmus test of Maresca’s summer transfer window is this: Ask a dozen Chelsea fans to name their best XI from the embarrassment of riches in that bloated squad, and you would almost certainly get 12 different line-ups.

Top four candidates? Probably. A trophy lift? Well, the Thursday Night Smorgasbord League in Europe should certainly be within their grasp. But a title challenge still looks a long way off.