Chelsea lost three key players in the summer. Antonio Rudiger left Chelsea for Real Madrid on a free transfer, Andreas Christensen joined Barcelona as a free agent and Remolu Lukaku was loaned to Inter Milan after failing to impress last season following his record £101 transfer to Chelsea.
However, Chelsea has signed Kalidou Koulibaly and Raheem Sterling but the blues still lack squad depth ahead of next season’s Premier League. Chelsea’s lack of squad depth was evident last Saturday when they defeated 4-0 by Arsenal in a pre-season friendly.
Thomas Tuchel who was not happy with Chelsea’s performance in their 4-0 defeat to Arsenal hinted that Chelsea needs more signings to improve.
Darren Lewis believes Chelsea’s inability to sign more players in the transfer market is a big issue.
What did Darren Lewis say?
Darren Lewis revealed via TalkSports: “The interesting thing is that Todd Boehly has been beaten to the punch by Barcelona for Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski, he’s not managed to get Nathan Ake out of Manchester City, and now it looks to be the case that he’s being beaten again by Barcelona for Jules Kounde.
“At the very least he’s struggling to get these signings over the line.
“If you look at Arsenal, they’ve done five transfers now, Liverpool has done their business, City has done their business, you look at Tottenham and they’ve done their business.
“If you at Chelsea, they’re lagging behind and this idea that you can take over a club and you do the business, it’s proving to be a lot more difficult than Todd Boehly and the people around him must have thought.
“On the basis of last night’s defeat to Arsenal, a lot of us in the press box couldn’t believe what we were seeing. Chelsea looked so poor. They looked so unable to cope with a side who, as Tuchel said after the match, finished below them in the table and won’t play in the Champions League this season.
“Arsenal looked coached, ready and their signings looked integrated. Oleksandr Zinchenko went straight into the side, Jesus looks like the striker they’ve been crying out for, and they just looked at it.
“Chelsea can’t get players in, they can’t move players out and as Tuchel said, Chelsea has got players who are desperate to leave.
“He didn’t name those players but I can tell you they are Hakim Ziyech who wants to go to AC Milan, Marcos Alonso wants to go to Barcelona, Cesar Azpilicueta wants to go to Barcelona, Timo Werner wants to go to get regular first-team football and Christian Pulisic wants to go and get first-team football.
“At the moment, Chelsea is a bit of a mess.”
Chelsea’s old problem of failing to convert their chances last season has been evident in their last two friendly games against Charlotte Fc and Arsenal. Thomas Tuchel was quoted saying after their penalty shoot-out defeat to Charlotte Fc that his attackers lacked composure when they get to the opponents’ box.
