Chelsea didn’t simply break the document spend in a season, they obliterated it, however – and there’s an enormous however – they didn’t land a beginning striker.
Their £600million outlay over the past two home windows is greater than sufficient to line up with each Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe up entrance, however as an alternative, they’d Kai Havertz in opposition to Fulham.
That’s with £97.5m Romelu Lukaku and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang each nonetheless Chelsea property, however with one on mortgage, and the opposite out of their Champions League squad, it’s clear the place their futures lie.
As a substitute it was the little-known David Datro Fofana who made the most important distinction in a 0-0 draw, with the 20-year-old striker coming closest to scoring, when many anticipated him to move straight out on mortgage.
However the probability of him touchdown the No.9 berth for the rest of the season appears to be like distant, prompting the query, how didn’t Todd Boehly and Co. see this coming?
“They’ve been introduced again right down to earth with a bump,” England legend Stuart Pearce stated at full-time.
“The end result will actually damage them as a result of they’ll understand how a lot it’s opening that hole between them and the Champions League locations.
“It’s simply that leading edge on the entrance of the staff, I do know the gamers can be delighted with [Enzo] Fernandez’s contribution however that leading edge was the one factor lacking.
“If you didn’t know the result today and looked at the run of play you’d think Chelsea missed a lot of chances, but they didn’t really.
“Graham Potter will be frustrated that they didn’t cut Fulham open, and it’s two points dropped.”
Out of Chelsea’s 16 signings under Boehly and Clearlake Captial’s ownership, there are four central midfielders, three centre backs and three wingers.
Fofana and Aubameyang make up the forward options, while the Blues paid a staggering £11m just to have Joao Felix on loan for six months.
Felix, much like Havertz, is not a centre forward, which left talkSPORT pundit Adam Catterall baffled as to why one didn’t arrive.
“The glaring thing that they do not have is a number nine,” he said. “Kai Havertz is not your guy.
“I know that Lukaku is still a Chelsea player, is that a conversation that you revisit when his loan spell finishes? Do you bring him back in, or do you offload him and look for something brand new?
“What can you go and get and how much money do you need to spend? A number nine is a priority now.”
Former Chelsea striker Carlton Cole had an opposing view though, thinking there’s enough there in the goals department to secure a top four finish.
“You’ve got Joao Felix and I like Fofana,” he said. “I like the way Fofana looks – he looks busy. He looks like he can do something, but he’s a work in progress.
“They do have gamers; they do have strikers. They do, it’s simply how they’ve been utilised and if it’s going to be equipped for that one man.
“I feel that Joao Felix is that man. It’s unlucky that he bought despatched off [on his debut with Fulham] however I feel they’re gearing up for him to return again.”
So who’s it? Fofana or Felix? Effectively with Haaland and Mbappe seemingly off the market, that is likely to be a query that may’t be answered by cash alone.
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Information Abstract:
- £600m however no striker… Chelsea’s document spend questioned as Blues come up blunt in opposition to Fulham and have simply three objectives this 12 months
- Test all information and articles from the most recent Football updates.