Lack of depth and quality, a squad going backwards . . .
No wonder the manager is angry
Europe. Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has always aspired to that trophy, which is why winning it in 2012 meant so much. But if he is serious about competing again at that level, he needs to build again.
Put bluntly, Chelsea are weaker today than in April. None of those players on the bench are available to Conte today, nor is Matic. Fabregas and Hazard will come back and the absence of Costa you might argue is Conte’s own doing. But despite the signings of Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko, far from getting stronger, Chelsea haven’t improved. If anything, they have gone backwards. Morata will be an excellent replacement for Costa. His movement, finishing and technique will ensure plenty of goals. However, Chelsea will still miss the fight and physicality of Costa and they will have to wait for Morata to adapt to the Premier League. Bakayoko may be good but the club have negated any positivity from his signing by selling Matic. But worse than that, while potentially weakening their own squad, they have provided the key piece of the jigsaw for a principal rival. And it doesn’t help that Matic was so instrumental in United’s 4-0 win against West Ham. On this issue, Conte has plenty of ammunition to demonstrate that the club’s transfer dealings are making his difficult job even harder. Because of a combination of Fabregas’s foolishness, the board’s misjudgments and Bakayoko’s injury, Conte goes into this crucial game with N’Golo Kante his only proven central midfielder. Gary Cahill is suspended; Costa is AWOL. Hazard is injured. Chelsea have spent £126million. But they have also raised £110m by selling Matic, Nathan Ake, Juan Cuadrado, Asmir Begovic, Bertrand Traore, Christian Atsu and Nathaniel Chalobah, with probably another £30m to come from Costa. So compared with the net spend of their rivals, Chelsea have taken a backward step. And don’t discount the importance of losing John Terry. Even though he didn’t play much last season, he would have been a leader in the dressing room, a stabilising voice of experience. Of course it’s too early to predict calamity, even if Chelsea’s recent history suggests they can go from title-winners to mediocre in a short space of time. They have lost only one game, there are still 11 days of the transfer window left and two key players — David Luiz and Marcos Alonso — arrived on August 31 last year. They still have top-quality players who can ensure they compete at a reasonable level. But it must be clear to everyone at the club, not just Conte, that this current squad isn’t good enough or deep enough to retain the league title. If they’re not busy in the next week, then it’s going to be one of those fractious seasons in which Chelsea seem to specialise.
One week on and I’m still not overly impressed with Tottenham’s efforts in the transfer market. I know they are signing defender Davinson Sanchez for £42million. There are 11 days for Tottenham to show they mean business and the clock is ticking.