Chelsea developed a reputation for spending obscene sums of money under previous owner Roman Abramovich, and it appears that the West London side is now happier than ever to flagrantly spend on new talent under his replacement, American billionaire Todd Boehly.
Chelsea Break the Bank in January Transfer Window: Can Blues Turn Their Season Around?
The Blues are experiencing a real blip, and it’s hard to imagine that the Stamford Bridge outfit won the Champions League less than two years ago. Under Graham Potter, who came in to replace Thomas Tuchel last September, Chelsea is placed in mid-table in the Premier League and has elected to bring in a host of significant additions in January to help their push to finish in the top four and mount a real challenge for another Champions League trophy.
The likes of Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Marc Cucurella were signed in the summer but didn’t improve matters, so in January, Boehly once again opened his checkbook.
Chelsea spent upwards of $250 million on new players in January, including a British record fee of over $110 million to sign young Argentine attacker Enzo Fernandez, and in doing so, Boehly and Potter will hope they can salvage something from the 2022/23 season.
Chelsea will look to focus their efforts on the Round of 16 match in the Champions League, where they face German giants Borussia Dortmund. Sports betting fans may want to take a shot at backing the club to win the showpiece tournament as they will clearly have less focus on the Premier League and can therefore put all their efforts into the competition.
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So could Chelsea really pull off such a success? Well, in theory, yes. Once you get to the knockout stages of the event, anything can happen. If you factor in that most of the big teams left in the competition are battling for domestic titles, Chelsea may be aided by the fact they are so far off the pace that they can save their top players for Champions League action.
Potter’s men have been knocked out of both the FA and EFL Cups by Manchester City and therefore don’t have a lot of games to interrupt their flow, giving their key players the chance to rest in between matches.
There’s no doubt there is unmistakable quality in Potter’s Chelsea squad, and at some point, it’s all going to come together. However, one area they are struggling in is upfront, and that’s where the former Brighton manager needs to resolve things.
Amazingly Chelsea has scored just 22 goals in 20 Premier League matches, that’s comfortably lower than any other side in the top ten, and Potter will hope that the likes of Fernandez, Joao Felix (who joined on loan from Atletico Madrid and then immediately got himself sent off on his debut) and Ukrainian starlet Mykhailo Mudryk can help provide the ammunition for the club’s forwards.
One thing is for sure, Todd Boehly will expect something to show for his expenditure by the time the current season comes to a close, and if there is no silverware or a top-four finish, Graham Potter may well be sacrificed over the summer.